Detecting subsystem symmetry protected topological order through strange correlators

Abstract

We employ strange correlators to detect 2D subsystem symmetry protected topological (SSPT) phases which are nontrivial topological phases protected by subsystem symmetries. Specifically, we analytically construct efficient strange correlators in the 2D cluster model in the presence of the uniform magnetic field and then perform the projector quantum Monte Carlo simulation within the quantum annealing scheme. We find that strange correlators show a long-range correlation in the SSPT phase, from which we define strange order parameters to characterize the topological phase transition between the SSPT phase at low fields and the trivial paramagnetic phase at high fields. Thus the detection of the fully localized zero modes on the 1D physical boundary of the SSPT phase has been transformed to the bulk correlation measurement about the local operators with the periodic boundary condition. We also find interesting spatial anisotropy of a strange correlator, which can be intrinsically traced back to the nature of spatial anisotropy of subsystem symmetries that protect SSPT order in the 2D cluster model. By simulating strange correlators, we, therefore, provide the first unbiased large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulation on the easy and efficient detection in the SSPT phase and open the avenue of the investigation of the subtle yet fundamental nature of the novel interacting topological phases.