Defects and excitations in the Kitaev model

Abstract

We construct a Kitaev model with defects using twists or 2-cocycles of semi-simple, finite-dimensional Hopf algebras as defect data. This data is derived by applying Tannaka duality to Turaev-Viro topological quantum field theories with defects. From this we also derive additional conditions for moving, fusing and braiding excitations in the Kitaev model with defects. We give a description of excitations in the Kitaev model and show that they satisfy conditions we derive from Turaev-Viro topological quantum field theories with defects. Assigning trivial defect data one obtains transparent defects and we show that they can be removed, yielding the Kitaev model without defects.