Topological phase transition in a discrete quasicrystal

Abstract

We investigate a two-dimensional tiling model. Even though the degrees of freedom in this model are discrete, it has a hidden continuous global symmetry in the infinite lattice limit, whose corresponding Goldstone modes are the quasicrystalline phasonic degrees of freedom. We show that due to this continuous symmetry, and despite the apparent discrete nature of the model, a topological phase transition from a quasi-long-range ordered to a disordered phase occurs at a finite temperature, driven by vortex proliferation. We argue that some of the results are universal properties of two-dimensional systems whose ground state is a quasicrystalline state.