Time: 14:00-15:30, Friday, August 5, 2022
Venue: E4-201, Yungu Campus, Westlake University
Speaker: Rongge Xu, a Ph.D student in Condensed Matter Theory Group, Westlake University
Title: Introduction to category theory in physics: Anyon condensation and topological Wick rotation
Abstract:
A topological phase transition of 2d topological orders with the same central charge is called "anyon condensation". Assume that a system of anyons which form a modular tensor category D, is obtained via an anyon condensation from another modular tensor category C. It turns out that D consists of all deconfined particles in C. We provide examples of anyon condensation in the toric code model and double Ising model.
The same condensation process also happens in spacetime, which is related to a mysterious process called "topological Wick rotation". After the topological Wick rotation, we obtain an enriched fusion category, which can describe the excitations in a gapless phase.
