Topological solid phase in a quantum dimer model

Abstract

We present an example for the phase transition between a topological non-trivial solid phase and a trivial solid phase in the quantum dimer model(QDM) on triangular lattice. Such a transition is beyond the Landau's paradigm of phase transition. We have characterized such a transition with the topological entanglement entropy(TEE) of the system, which is found to change from $\gamma=\ln 2$ in the topological solid phase to zero in the trivial solid phase, through a pronounced peak around the transition point. We also calculated the correlation function of the vison excitation in the QDM and find that the vison condensate develops right at the topological transition point. These results imply that the topological order and the related fractionalized excitation can coexist with conventional symmetry breaking order.