Mapping Kitaev’s quantum double lattice models to Levin and Wen’s string-net models

Abstract

We exhibit a mapping identifying Kitaev's quantum double lattice models explicitly as a subclass of Levin and Wen's string-net models via a completion of the local Hilbert spaces with auxiliary degrees of freedom. This identification allows one to carry over to these string-net models the representation-theoretic classification of the excitations in quantum double models as well as define them in arbitrary lattices and provides an illustration of the abstract notion of Morita equivalence. The possibility of generalizing the map to broader classes of string nets is considered.