BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Landau-Ginzburg Paradigm of Topological Orders and a CFT Factory -
  Yu  Zhao (Fudan University)
DTSTART:20250902T090000Z
DTEND:20250902T103000Z
UID:TALK235411@talks.cam.ac.uk
DESCRIPTION:Topologically ordered phases of matter have long been regarded
  as lying beyond the Landau&ndash\;Ginzburg paradigm of symmetry breaking.
  Our recent studies of anyon condensation\, however\, suggest that such ph
 ases may\, in fact\, be brought back within the Landau&ndash\;Ginzburg fra
 mework. In this talk\, I will present a framework that brings 2+1D topolog
 ical phases back into the Landau&ndash\;Ginzburg picture by reformulating 
 the string-net model to be a genuine lattice gauge theory coupled to anyon
 ic matter fields. Within this modified model\, topological phase transitio
 ns induced by anyon condensation and their consequent phenomena\, such as 
 order parameter fields\, coherent states\, Goldstone modes\, and gapping g
 auge degrees of freedom\, can be formulated as Landau's effective theory o
 f the Higgs mechanism. Our lattice model encodes the microscopic details t
 hat are invisible at the purely topological level but become relevant once
  topological invariance is broken. Building on this perspective\, I will b
 riefly introduce a CFT factory -- a novel algorithm of methodically genera
 ting 2D critical lattice models that would flow to 2D conformal fixed poin
 ts in the infrared -- via critical boundary conditions to 2+1D topological
  orders (SymTOs/SymTFTs) described by our string-net models\, often called
  the strange correlators. We engineer these critical boundary conditions b
 y introducing multiple competing anyon condensates in the string-net model
 . Our structured method generates an infinite family of critical lattice m
 odels\, including both known families of CFTs and novel CFTs -- including 
 examples with exotic Haagerup symmetries. This approach points toward a br
 oader unifying framework in which topological orders\, lattice gauge theor
 ies\, and conformal criticality emerge as interconnected manifestations of
  the same underlying structure.\n&nbsp\;
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Newton Institute
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR