Topological Order: From Long-Range Entangled Quantum Matter to a Unified Origin of Light and Electrons
We review the progress in the last 20–30 years, during which we discovered that there are many new phases of matter that are beyond the traditional Landau symmetry breaking theory. We discuss new “topological” phenomena, such as topological degeneracy that reveals the existence of those new phases—...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Hindawi Publishing Corporation
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/96126 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5874-581X |
| _version_ | 1826205169782620160 |
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| author | Wen, Xiao-Gang |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Wen, Xiao-Gang |
| author_sort | Wen, Xiao-Gang |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We review the progress in the last 20–30 years, during which we discovered that there are many new phases of matter that are beyond the traditional Landau symmetry breaking theory. We discuss new “topological” phenomena, such as topological degeneracy that reveals the existence of those new phases—topologically ordered phases. Just like zero viscosity defines the superfluid order, the new “topological” phenomena define the topological order at macroscopic level. More recently, we found that at the microscopical level, topological order is due to long-range quantum entanglements. Long-range quantum entanglements lead to many amazing emergent phenomena, such as fractional charges and fractional statistics. Long-range quantum entanglements can even provide a unified origin of light and electrons; light is a fluctuation of long-range entanglements, and electrons are defects in long-range entanglements. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:08:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/96126 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:08:49Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Hindawi Publishing Corporation |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/961262022-09-28T12:12:53Z Topological Order: From Long-Range Entangled Quantum Matter to a Unified Origin of Light and Electrons Wen, Xiao-Gang Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Wen, Xiao-Gang We review the progress in the last 20–30 years, during which we discovered that there are many new phases of matter that are beyond the traditional Landau symmetry breaking theory. We discuss new “topological” phenomena, such as topological degeneracy that reveals the existence of those new phases—topologically ordered phases. Just like zero viscosity defines the superfluid order, the new “topological” phenomena define the topological order at macroscopic level. More recently, we found that at the microscopical level, topological order is due to long-range quantum entanglements. Long-range quantum entanglements lead to many amazing emergent phenomena, such as fractional charges and fractional statistics. Long-range quantum entanglements can even provide a unified origin of light and electrons; light is a fluctuation of long-range entanglements, and electrons are defects in long-range entanglements. 2015-03-20T16:19:32Z 2015-03-20T16:19:32Z 2013 2012-10 2015-03-19T11:35:15Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2090-7400 2090-7397 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/96126 Wen, Xiao-Gang. “Topological Order: From Long-Range Entangled Quantum Matter to a Unified Origin of Light and Electrons.” ISRN Condensed Matter Physics 2013 (2013): 1–20. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5874-581X en http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/198710 ISRN Condensed Matter Physics Creative Commons Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 Copyright © 2013 Xiao-Gang Wen. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. application/pdf Hindawi Publishing Corporation Hindawi Publishing Corporation |
| spellingShingle | Wen, Xiao-Gang Topological Order: From Long-Range Entangled Quantum Matter to a Unified Origin of Light and Electrons |
| title | Topological Order: From Long-Range Entangled Quantum Matter to a Unified Origin of Light and Electrons |
| title_full | Topological Order: From Long-Range Entangled Quantum Matter to a Unified Origin of Light and Electrons |
| title_fullStr | Topological Order: From Long-Range Entangled Quantum Matter to a Unified Origin of Light and Electrons |
| title_full_unstemmed | Topological Order: From Long-Range Entangled Quantum Matter to a Unified Origin of Light and Electrons |
| title_short | Topological Order: From Long-Range Entangled Quantum Matter to a Unified Origin of Light and Electrons |
| title_sort | topological order from long range entangled quantum matter to a unified origin of light and electrons |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/96126 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5874-581X |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT wenxiaogang topologicalorderfromlongrangeentangledquantummattertoaunifiedoriginoflightandelectrons |