Winding theta and destructive interference of instantons

Abstract

While the $θ$ dependence of field theories is $2π$ periodic, the ground-state wavefunctions at $θ$ and $θ+2π$ often belong to different classes of symmetry-protected topological states. When this is the case, a continuous change of the $θ$ parameter can introduce an interface that supports a nontrivial field theory localized on the wall. We consider the $2$d $\mathbb{C}P^{N-1}$ sigma model as an example and construct a weak-coupling setup of this interface theory by considering the small $S^1$ compactification with nonzero winding $θ$ parameter and a suitable symmetry-twisted boundary condition. This system has $N$ classical vacua connected by fractional instantons, but the anomaly constraint tells us that the fractional-instanton amplitudes should vanish completely to have $N$-fold degeneracy at the quantum level. We show how this happens in this purely bosonic system, uncovering that the integration over the zero modes annihilates the fractional instanton amplitudes, which is sharp contrast to what happens when the $θ$ angle is constant. Moreover, we provide another explanation of this selection rule by showing that the $N$ perturbative vacua acquire different charges under the global symmetry with the activation of the winding $θ$ angle. We also demonstrate a similar destructive interference between instanton effects in the $\mathbb{C}P^{N-1}$ quantum mechanics with the Berry phase.