Haag Duality for 2D Quantum Spin Systems

Abstract

Haag duality is a fundamental locality property introduced in the pioneering formulation of algebraic quantum field theory by Haag and Kastler in the 1960s. Since then, it has played a central role, most notably in the classification of superselection sectors by Doplicher, Haag, and Roberts in the 1970s. Over the past two decades, this concept has migrated from its relativistic origins to quantum spin systems, becoming a cornerstone of the operator-algebraic approach to the long-standing problem of classifying two-dimensional topological quantum phases of matter. In physics, it is widely conjectured that such phases are classified by their emergent anyons, a view supported by exactly solvable models exemplifying all known non-chiral phases: Kitaev's quantum double models, Levin-Wen string-net models, and their slight generalizations. In these models, elementary excitations behave as quasi-particles, namely anyons, whose fusion and braiding properties form a tensor category expected to characterize the phase of matter. A major open problem was to derive the emergence of anyons and the stability of their fusion and braiding beyond these solvable models. Recently, it has been shown that a weaker, phase-stable form of Haag duality resolves these questions. However, rigorous proofs of Haag duality in two dimensions were previously restricted to systems exhibiting abelian anyons. In this work, we establish Haag duality for a broad class of tensor network models based on $C^*$-weak Hopf algebras, encompassing all Kitaev quantum double and Levin-Wen string-net models, and expected to include all non-chiral topological quantum phases of matter.