Topological Phases and Phase Transitions with Dipolar Symmetry Breaking

Systems with dipole moment conservation have been of recent interest, as they realize both novel quantum dynamics and exotic ground state phases. In this work, we study some generic properties of 1-D and 2-D dipole-conserving fermionic models at integer fillings. We find that a dipolar symmetry-breaking phase can result in a mean-field band insulator whose topological indices can strongly affect the low-energy physics of the dipolar Goldstone modes. We study the 2-D topological phase transition of the mean-field ground states in the presence of the Goldstone modes. The critical theory resembles the 2+1d quantum electrodynamics coupled to massless Dirac fermions with some crucial differences and shows a novel quantum critical point featuring a nontrivial dynamical exponent. We also discuss the analogous case of 1-D dipole-conserving models and the role of topological invariants.