Robustness of Topological Order in the Toric Code with Open Boundaries

Abstract

We analyze the robustness of topological order in the toric code in an open boundary setting in the presence of perturbations. The boundary conditions are introduced on a cylinder, and are classified into condensing and non-condensing classes depending on the behavior of the excitations at the boundary under perturbation. For the non-condensing class, we see that the topological order is more robust when compared to the case of periodic boundary conditions while in the condensing case topological order is lost as soon as the perturbation is turned on. In most cases, the robustness can be understood by the quantum phase diagram of a equivalent Ising model.