Related papers: Smectics: Symmetry Breaking, Singularities, and Su…
We derive the framing anomaly of four-dimensional holomorphic-topological Chern-Simons theory formulated on the product of a topological surface and the complex plane. We show that the presence of this anomaly allows one to couple…
Many features of spin models can be interpreted in geometrical terms by means of the properties of well defined clusters of spins. In case of spontaneous symmetry breaking, the phase transition of models like the q-state Potts model, O(n),…
There are two prominent applications of the mathematical concept of topology to the physics of materials: band topology, which classifies different topological insulators and semimetals, and topological defects that represent immutable…
We discuss the structure of topological defects in the context of extra dimensions where the symmetry breaking terms are localized. These defects develop structure in the extra dimension which differs from the case where symmetry breaking…
Combination of topology and general relativity can lead to some profound and farsighted predictions. It is well known that symmetry breaking of the Higgs vacuum field in the early universe possibly induced topological defects in spacetime,…
The dislocation-mediated quantum melting of solids into quantum liquid crystals is extended from two to three spatial dimensions, using a generalization of boson-vortex or Abelian-Higgs duality. Dislocations are now Burgers-vector-valued…
We extend the concept of strange correlators, defined for symmetry-protected phases in [You et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 247202 (2014)], to topological phases of matter by taking the inner product between string-net ground states and…
It is well known that continuous symmetries of quantum fields can be realized non-linearly, e.g. in the context of sigma models, and can also be spontaneously broken on non-compact spacetimes. In this note we study how these effects are…
Topological defects are singularities in material fields that play a vital role across a range of systems: from cosmic microwave background polarization to superconductors, and biological materials. Although topological defects and their…
We present a self-contained review of the theory of dislocation-mediated quantum melting at zero temperature in two spatial dimensions. The theory describes the liquid-crystalline phases with spatial symmetries in between a quantum…
We consider the possibility for phases of matter in which a continuous symmetry is spontaneously broken in a \emph{topologically non-trivial} way, which, roughly, means that the action for the Goldstone modes contains a quantized…
Smectic order on arbitrary curved substrate can be described by a differential form of rank one (1-form), whose geometric meaning is the differential of the local phase field of the density modulation. The exterior derivative of 1-form is…
Topological defects play a prominent role in the physics of two-dimensional materials. When driven out of equilibrium in active nematics, disclinations can acquire spontaneous self-propulsion and drive self-sustained flows upon…
The introduction of synthetic dimensions in topological photonic systems enriches the exploration of topological phase of light in higher-dimensional space beyond three-dimensional real-space. Recently, the gapless corner modes of…
In thin films of smectic-C liquid crystals, localized regions containing additional smectic layers form circular inclusions that carry a topological charge. Such inclusions nucleate a companion topological defect. These inclusion-defect…
Dynamical, metastable supersymmetry breaking appears to be a generic phenomena in supersymmetric field theories. It's simplest implementation is within the so-called "retrofitted O'Raifeartaigh Models". While seemingly flexible, model…
We extend the well-known theoretical treatment of the spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) in two-component systems, combining linear coupling and self-attractive nonlinearity, to a system in which the linear coupling competes with repulsive…
Fractonic phases are new phases of matter that host excitations with restricted mobility. We show that a certain class of gapless fractonic phases are realized as a result of spontaneous breaking of continuous higher-form symmetries whose…
A crystalline topological phase is a topological phase with spatial symmetries. In this work, we give a very general physical picture of such phases: a topological phase with spatial symmetry $G$ (with internal symmetry $G_{\mathrm{int}}…
We describe the geometry of bend distortions in twist-bend nematic liquid crystals in terms of their fundamental degeneracies, which we call $\beta$ lines. These represent a new class of line-like topological defect. We use them to…