Lieb-Schultz-Mattis type theorems for Majorana models with discrete symmetries

Abstract

We prove two Lieb-Schultz-Mattis type theorems that apply to any translationally invariant and local fermionic $d$-dimensional lattice Hamiltonian for which fermion-number conservation is broken down to the conservation of fermion parity. We show that when the internal symmetry group $G^{\,}_{f}$ is realized locally (in a repeat unit cell of the lattice) by a nontrivial projective representation, then the ground state cannot be simultaneously nondegenerate, symmetric (with respect to lattice translations and $G^{\,}_{f}$), and gapped. We also show that when the repeat unit cell hosts an odd number of Majorana degrees of freedom and the cardinality of the lattice is even, then the ground state cannot be simultaneously nondegenerate, gapped, and translation symmetric.