Fractonic topological phases from coupled wires

Abstract

In three dimensions, gapped phases can support “fractonic” quasiparticle excitations, which are either completely immobile or can only move within a low-dimensional submanifold, a peculiar topological phenomenon going beyond the conventional framework of topological quantum field theory. In this work we explore fractonic topological phases using three-dimensional coupled wire constructions, which have proven to be a successful tool to realize and characterize topological phases in two dimensions. We find that both gapped and gapless phases with fractonic excitations can emerge from the models. In the gapped case, we argue that fractonic excitations are mobile along the wire direction, but their mobility in the transverse plane is generally reduced. We show that the excitations in general have infinite-order fusion structure, distinct from previously known gapped fracton models. Like the two-dimensional coupled-wire constructions, many models exhibit gapless (or even chiral) surface states, which can be described by infinite-component Luttinger liquids. However, the universality class of the surface theory strongly depends on the surface orientation, thus revealing a different type of bulk-boundary correspondence unique to fracton phases.