Contributor info: Dr Jintae Kim

Jintae Kim, Yun-Tak Oh, Daniel Bulmash, Jung Hoon Han

SciPost Phys. 18, 110 (2025) · published 25 March 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

Some topological lattice models in two spatial dimensions exhibit intricate lattice size dependence in their ground state degeneracy (GSD). This and other features such as the position-dependent anyonic excitations are manifestations of UV/IR mixing. In the first part of this paper, we perform an exact calculation of the topological entanglement entropy (TEE) for a specific model, the rank-2 toric code. This analysis includes both contractible and non-contractible boundaries, with the minimum entropy states identified specifically for non-contractible boundaries. Our results show that TEE for a contractible boundary remains independent of lattice size, whereas TEE for non-contractible boundaries, similarly to the GSD, shows intricate lattice-size dependence. In the latter part of the paper we focus on the fact that the rank-2 toric code is an example of a translation symmetry-enriched topological phase, and show that viewing distinct lattice size as a consequence of different translation symmetry defects can explain both our TEE results and the GSD of the rank-2 toric code. Our work establishes the translation symmetry defect framework as a robust description of the UV/IR mixing in topological lattice models.