Fermionic Topological Order on Generic Triangulations

Abstract: Consider a finite triangulation of a surface $M$ of genus $g$ and assume that spin-less fermions populate the edges of the triangulation. The quantum dynamics of such particles takes place inside the algebra of canonical anti-commutation relations (CAR). Following Kitaev's work on toric models, we identify a sub-algebra of CAR generated by elements associated to the triangles and vertices of the triangulation. We show that any Hamiltonian drawn from this sub-algebra displays topological spectral degeneracy. More precisely, if $\mathcal P$ is any of its spectral projections, the Booleanization of the fundmental group $\pi_1(M)$ can be embedded inside the group of invertible elements of the corner algebra $\mathcal P \, {\rm CAR} \, \mathcal P$. As a consequence, $\mathcal P$ decomposes in $4^g$ lower projections. Furthermore, a projective representation of $\mathbb Z_2^{4g}$ is also explicitly constructed inside this corner algebra. Key to all these is a presentation of CAR as a crossed product with the Boolean group $(2^X,\Delta)$, where $X$ is the set of fermion sites and $\Delta$ is the symmetric difference.