Excitations in the higher-lattice gauge theory model for topological phases. III. the (3+1)-dimensional case

Abstract

In this, the third paper in our series describing the excitations of the higher-lattice gauge theory model for topological phases, we will examine the (3+1)-dimensional case in detail. We will explicitly construct the ribbon and membrane operators which create the topological excitations, and use these creation operators to find the pattern of condensation and confinement. We also use these operators to find the braiding relations of the excitations, and to construct charge measurement operators which project to states of definite topological charge.