Symmetry fractionalization of visons in Z2 spin liquids

ORAL

Abstract

In this work we study symmetry fractionalization of vison excitations in topological $\mathbb{Z}_2$ spin liquids. We show that in the presence of the full $\mathrm{SO}(3)$ spin-rotational symmetry and if there is an odd number of spin-$\frac12$ per unit cell, the symmetry fractionalization of visons is completely fixed. On the other hand, visons can have different classes of symmetry fractionalization if the spin-rotational symmetry is reduced. As a concrete example, we show that visons in the Balents-Fisher-Girvin $\mathbb{Z}_2$ spin liquid have crystal symmetry fractionalization classes which are not allowed in $\mathrm{SO}(3)$ symmetric spin liquids, due to the reduced spin-rotational symmetry.

Authors

  • Yang Qi

    Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

  • Meng Cheng

    Microsoft Station Q, Station Q, Microsoft Research

  • Chen Fang

    Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology