Evolution of dynamical signature in the X-cube fracton topological order

Abstract

As an unconventional realization of topological orders with an exotic interplay of topology and geometry, fracton (topological) orders feature subextensive topological ground-state degeneracy and subdimensional excitations that are movable only within a certain subspace. It has been known, in the exactly solvable three-dimensional X-cube model that universally represents the type-I fracton orders, that mobility constraints on subdimensional excitations originate from the absence of spatially deformable stringlike operators. To unveil the interplay of topology and geometry, in this paper, we study the dynamical signature in the X-cube model in the presence of external Zeeman fields via large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulation and stochastic analytic continuation. We compute both real-space correlation functions and dynamic structure factors of subdimensional excitations (i.e., fractons, lineons, and planons) in the fracton phase and their evolution into the trivial paramagnetic phase by increasing external fields. We find, in the fracton phase, that the correlation functions and the spectral functions show clear anisotropy exactly caused by the underlying mobility constraints. On the other hand, the external fields successfully induce quantum fluctuations and offer mobility to excitations along the subspace allowed by mobility constraints. These numerical results provide the evolution of a dynamical signature of subdimensional particles in fracton orders, indicating that the mobility constraints on local dynamical properties of subdimensional excitations are deeply related to the existence of fracton topological order. The results will also be helpful in potential experimental identifications in spectroscopy measurements such as neutron scattering and nuclear magnetic resonance.