Nonperturbative effects of a topological theta term on principal chiral nonlinear sigma models in 2 + 1 dimensions

Phys Rev Lett. 2013 May 17;110(20):200405. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.200405. Epub 2013 May 17.

Abstract

We study the effects of a topological Theta term on 2+1-dimensional principal chiral models, which are nonlinear sigma models defined on Lie group manifolds. We find that when Θ=π, the nature of the disordered phase of the principal chiral model is strongly affected by the topological term: it is either a gapless conformal field theory, or it is gapped and twofold degenerate. The result of our Letter can be used to analyze the boundary states of three-dimensional symmetry protected topological phases.