# Topological phase

Can anybody tell me, if generically any system, which is solely described by a topological field theory, resides in a topological phase? I cant find any clear notion of topological phase. Only topological phase of matter, but I mean any kind of system.

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Your first sentence/question makes absolutely zero sense. – Chris Gerig Aug 10 '12 at 1:15
A topological phase is just your "object" picking up a phase factor $e^{i\phi}$ when you "make a complete loop" around some "hole." – Chris Gerig Aug 10 '12 at 1:16
@ChrisGerig, that's not entirely accurate; sometimes "topological phase" refers to stable states of matter with topological order, like quantum hall states... Which I think is maybe what the questioner is getting at, but the question is unclear to me also. :\ – wsc Aug 10 '12 at 4:26
@Chris Gerig: No I do not mean picking up a "phase factor". – Hamurabi Aug 10 '12 at 6:31
@wsc: Yes, I mean configurations like those you wrote down. However, they are as I have understood, associated to matter degrees of freedom, when correlation functions become diffinvariant. I am just wondering, if generically, systems described by topological field theories describe topological phases, when disregarding other parts of the action. – Hamurabi Aug 10 '12 at 6:35