Entanglement renormalization of fractonic anisotropic $\mathbb{Z}_N$ Laplacian models

Abstract

Gapped fracton phases constitute a new class of quantum states of matter which connects to topological orders but does not fit easily into existing paradigms. They host unconventional features such as sub-extensive and robust ground state degeneracies as well as sensitivity to lattice geometry. We investigate the anisotropic $\mathbb{Z}_N$ Laplacian model [1] which can describe a family of fracton phases defined on arbitrary graphs. Focusing on representative geometries where the 3D lattices are extensions of 2D square, triangular, honeycomb and Kagome lattices into the third dimension, we study their ground state degeneracies and mobility of excitations, and examine their entanglement renormalization group (ERG) flows. All models show bifurcating behaviors under ERG but have distinct ERG flows sensitive to both $N$ and lattice geometry. In particular, we show that the anisotropic $\mathbb{Z}_N$ Laplacian models defined on the extensions of triangular and honeycomb lattices are equivalent when $N$ is coprime to $3$. We also point out that, in contrast to previous expectations, the model defined on the extension of Kagome lattice is robust against local perturbations if and only if $N$ is coprime to $6$.