Anyons in the $Ï$-flux phase of fermionic matter coupled to a $\mathbb{Z}_2$-gauge field
Sven Bachmann, Leonardo Goller, Marcello Porta
Published: 2025/8/29
Abstract
We consider a system of weakly interacting spinful lattice fermions coupled to a dynamical $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge field. The ground state lies in the sector of a uniform $\pi$-flux per plaquette and the monopoles are massive. In the presence of a staggered mass for the fermions, this yields a fully gapped, four-dimensional ground state space on large tori. It is topologically ordered. By considering adiabatic $\pi$-flux insertion, we construct dressed monopole excitations and show that their braiding with the fermionic excitations are those of the toric code.