Related papers: Smectics: Symmetry Breaking, Singularities, and Su…
Symmetry is one of the cornerstones of modern physics and has profound implications in different areas. In symmetry-protected topological systems, symmetries are responsible for protecting surface states, which are at the heart of the…
We propose a general formalism to characterize orientational frustration of smectic liquid crystals in confinement by interpreting the emerging networks of grain boundaries as objects with a topological charge. In a formal idealization,…
The notion of a holomorphically symplectic manifold can be generalized to the singular one. This paper studies the birational contraction maps between symplectic varieties, and then describes the deformation of a symplectic variety which…
A finite subgroup of the conformal group SL(2,C) can be related to invariant polynomials on a hypersurface in C^3. The latter then carries a simple singularity, which resolves by a finite iteration of basic cycles of deprojections. The…
Spontaneous symmetry breaking in systems with symmetry is a cornerstone phenomenon accompanying second-order phase transitions. Here, we predict the opposite phenomenon, namely, spontaneous symmetry emergence in a system that lacks…
We introduce a model to study magnon scattering in skyrmion crystals, sandwiched between ferromagnets which act as the source of magnons. Skyrmions are topological objects while skyrmion crystals break internal and translational symmetries,…
Fractons are particles that cannot move in one or more directions without paying energy proportional to their displacement. Here, we introduce the concept of symmetry enforced fractonicity, in which particles are fractons in the presence of…
The Lorentz symmetry and the space and time translational symmetry are fundamental symmetries of nature. Crystals are the manifestation of the continuous space translational symmetry being spontaneously broken into a discrete one. We argue…
In this paper, we apply the method of breaking quantum double symmetries to some cases of defect mediated melting. The formalism allows for a systematic classification of possible defect condensates and the subsequent confinement and/or…
Two-dimensional simulations of the coarsening process of the isotropic/smectic-A phase transition are presented using a high-order Landau-de Gennes type free energy model. Defect annihilation laws for smectic disclinations, elementary…
Goldstone modes in the amorphous solid state, resulting from the spontaneous breaking of translational symmetry due to random localisation of particles, are discussed. Starting from a microscopic model with quenched disorder, the broken…
We introduce exactly solvable gapless quantum systems in $d$ dimensions that support symmetry protected topological (SPT) edge modes. Our construction leads to long-range entangled, critical points or phases that can be interpreted as…
In the framework of a recently proposed topological approach to phase transitions, some sufficient conditions ensuring the presence of the spontaneous breaking of a Z_2 symmetry and of a symmetry-breaking phase transition are introduced and…
Some important rigorous results on phase transitions accompanied by the spontaneous breaking of symmetries in statistical mechanics and relativistic quantum field theory are reviewed. Basic ideas, mainly inspired by quantum field theory,…
A semiclassical picture of spontaneous symmetry breaking in light front field theory is formulated. It is based on a finite-volume quantization of self-interacting scalar fields obeying antiperiodic boundary conditions. This choice avoids a…
Boundary conditions and defects of any codimension are natural parts of any quantum field theory. Surface defects in three-dimensional topological field theories of Turaev-Reshetikhin type have applications to two-dimensional conformal…
We show that dislocations in active 2d smectics with underlying rotational symmetry are always unbound in the presence of noise, meaning the active smectic phase does not exist for non-zero noise in $d=2$. The active smectic phase can, like…
Topological defects in crystalline lattices are considered. In relation to physical realizability of such defects, criteria for geometric compatibility of the lattice distortions are formulated. For 2D lattices it is shown that the answer…
Dislocation nucleation in homogeneous crystals initially unfolds as a linear symmetry-breaking elastic instability. In the absence of explicit nucleation centers, such instability develops simultaneously all over the crystal and due to the…
In this paper, we explore the interplay between symmetry and fracton order, motivated by the analogous close relationship for topologically ordered systems. Specifically, we consider models with 3D planar subsystem symmetry, and show that…