Holography for bulk-boundary local topological order
math-ph, cond-mat.str-el, math.MP, math.OA, math.QA, quant-ph
Submitted: 2025-06-24
Updated: 2026-09-21
Comments: 51 pages, many figures. Comments welcome! v3: corrections and extra details added
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The gist: In our previous article [arXiv:2307.12552], we introduced local topological order (LTO) axioms for quantum spin systems which allowed us to define a physical boundary (associated to a cut of the
Terminology
Abstract
In our previous article [arXiv:2307.12552], we introduced local topological order (LTO) axioms for quantum spin systems which allowed us to define a physical boundary (associated to a cut of the lattice) manifested by a net of boundary algebras in one dimension lower. This gives a formal setting for topological holography, where the braided tensor category of DHR bimodules of the physical boundary algebra captures the bulk topological order. In this article, we extend the LTO axioms to quantum spin systems equipped with a topological boundary (domain wall with the trivial phase), again producing a physical boundary algebra for the bulk-boundary system, whose category of (topological) boundary DHR bimodules recovers the topological boundary order. We perform this analysis in explicit detail for Levin-Wen and Walker-Wang bulk-boundary systems. Along the way, we introduce a 2D braided categorical net of algebras built from a unitary braided fusion category (UBFC). Such nets arise as boundary algebras of Walker-Wang models. We consider the canonical state on this braided categorical net corresponding to the standard topological boundary for the Walker-Wang model. Interestingly, in this state, the cone von Neumann algebras are type I with finite dimensional centers, in contrast with the type II and III cone von Neumann algebras from the Levin-Wen models studied in [arXiv:2307.12552]. The superselection sectors recover the underlying unitary category of our UBFC, and it was recently proven in [arXiv:2609.20725] that the superselection category also captures the fusion and braiding.
Sources
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- Distortion for multifactor bimodules and representations of multifusion categories
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- Manifestly unitary higher Hilbert spaces
- Boundary algebras of the Kitaev Quantum Double model
- Q-system completion for C* 2-categories
- The module embedding theorem via towers of algebras
- A categorical Connes' $\chi(M)$
- Symmetry as a shadow of topological order and a derivation of topological holographic principle
- Unitary connections on Bratteli diagrams
- Dualities between 2+1d fusion surface models from braided fusion categories
- Enriched string-net models and their excitations
- The Extended Haagerup fusion categories
- Composing topological domain walls and anyon mobility
- On the structure of DHR bimodules of abstract spin chains
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