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200 papers

I present a model of discrete gravity, which is formulated in terms of a topological gauge theory with defects. The theory has no local degrees of freedom and the gravitational field is trivial everywhere except at a number of colliding…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2017-06-05 Wolfgang Wieland

The vacuum is the lowest energy state of a field in a certain region of space. This definition implies that no particles can be present in the vacuum state. In classical physics, the only features of vacuum are those of its geometry. For…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2015-12-15 G. S. Paraoanu

We study the topology associated with physical vector and scalar fields. A mathematical object, e.g., a ball, can be continuously deformed, without tearing or gluing, to make other topologically equivalent objects, e.g., a cube or a solid…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-01-12 Amir Jafari , Ethan Vishniac

Quantum theory, general relativity, the standard model of particle physics, and the $\Lambda$CDM model of cosmology have all been spectacularly successful within their respective regimes of applicability, but many central problems remain…

General Physics · Physics 2026-05-26 Roland E. Allen

A classical dynamical system in a four-dimensional Euclidean space with universal time is considered. The space is hypothesized to be originally occupied by a uniform substance, pictured as a liquid, which at some time became supercooled.…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2013-06-19 Michael Grady

We study the nonequilibrium dynamics leading to the formation of topological defects in a symmetry-breaking phase transition of a quantum scalar field with \lambda\Phi^4 self-interaction in a spatially flat, radiation-dominated…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2009-10-31 G. J. Stephens , E. A. Calzetta , B. L. Hu , S. A. Ramsey

A topological theory for the interactions in Nature is presented. The theory derives from the cyclic properties of the topological manifold Q=2T^3 + 3S^1 x S^2 which has 23 intrinsic degrees of freedom, discrete Z_3 and Z_2 x Z_3 internal…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2007-05-23 Marco Spaans

In this work, we propose a topological quantum field theory phase for four-dimensional gravity. We show it is able to generate, not only General Relativity, but the whole family of Lovelock-Cartan theories of gravity. This is accomplished…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2025-05-14 Guilherme Sadovski , Rodrigo F. Sobreiro

The classical thermostatics of equilibrium processes is shown to possess a quantum-mechanical dual theory with a finite-dimensional Hilbert space of quantum states. Specifically, the kernel of a certain Hamiltonian operator becomes the…

Mathematical Physics · Physics 2017-04-05 D. Cabrera , P. Fernandez de Cordoba , J. M. Isidro , J. Vazquez Molina

Topological media are systems whose properties are protected by topology and thus are robust to deformations of the system. In topological insulators and superconductors the bulk-surface and bulk-vortex correspondence gives rise to the…

Strongly Correlated Electrons · Physics 2015-09-28 G. E. Volovik

We consider changes of the topological charge of vortices in quantum mechanics by investigating analytical examples where the creation or annihilation of vortices occurs. In classical hydrodynamics of non-viscous fluids the Helmholtz-Kelvin…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2009-11-07 Bogdan Damski , Krzysztof Sacha

We study the non-equilibrium dynamics of quenching through a quantum critical point in topological systems, focusing on one of their defining features: ground state degeneracies and associated topological sectors. We present the notion of…

Strongly Correlated Electrons · Physics 2014-07-02 G. Kells , D. Sen , J. K. Slingerland , S. Vishveshwara

The interplay between unitary dynamics and quantum measurements induces diverse phenomena in open quantum systems with no counterparts in closed quantum systems at equilibrium. Here, we generally classify Kraus operators and their effective…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2025-11-12 Zhenyu Xiao , Kohei Kawabata

We show that topology can protect exponentially localized, zero energy edge modes at critical points between one-dimensional symmetry protected topological phases. This is possible even without gapped degrees of freedom in the bulk ---in…

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics · Physics 2018-02-02 Ruben Verresen , Nick G. Jones , Frank Pollmann

Topology describes global quantities invariant under continuous deformations, such as the number of elementary excitations at a phase boundary, without detailing specifics. Conversely, differential laws are needed to understand the physical…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2025-05-05 Pasquale Marra , Angela Nigro

We propose the velocity field approach to characterize topological invariants of quantum states. We introduce the indexes of the velocity field flow based on the zero modes of the velocity field and find that these zero modes play the role…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2024-03-14 Annan Fan , Shi-Dong Liang

Topological properties of materials, as manifested in the intriguing phenomena of quantum Hall effect and topological insulators, have attracted overwhelming transdisciplinary interest in recent years. Topological edge states, for instance,…

Recently there has been much effort in understanding topological phases of matter with gapless bulk excitations, which are characterized by topological invariants and protected intrinsic boundary states. Here we show that topological…

Strongly Correlated Electrons · Physics 2015-03-19 Robert Schaffer , Eric Kin-Ho Lee , Yuan-Ming Lu , Yong Baek Kim

Treating the gravitational force on the same footing as the electroweak and strong forces, we present a quantum field theory of gravity based on spin and scaling gauge symmetries. A biframe spacetime is initiated to describe such a quantum…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2016-01-20 Yue-Liang Wu

Topological quantum states are characterized by nonlocal invariants, and their detection is intrinsically challenging. Various strategies have been developed to study topological Hamiltonians through their equilibrium states. We present a…