Related papers: Probing Gauge String Formation in a Superconductin…
When gauged cosmic strings form in a symmetry-breaking phase transition, the gauge field configuration at the time becomes imprinted in the spatial string distribution by the flux trapping mechanism. It is shown that quantum and thermal…
We develop methods to probe the excitation spectrum of topological phases of matter in two spatial dimensions. Applying these to the Fibonacci string nets perturbed away from exact solvability, we analyze a topological phase transition…
The experiments on verification of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism showed that topological defects are formed most efficiently in the systems of small size or low (quasi-)dimensionality, whereas in the macroscopic two- and three-dimensional…
We review the subject of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking. First we consider supersymmetry breaking in a semiclassical theory. We illustrate it with several examples, demonstrating different phenomena, including metastable supersymmetry…
Symmetry breaking phase transitions from less to more ordered phases will typically produce topological defects in the ordered phase. Kibble-Zurek theory predicts that for any second-order phase transition, such as the early universe, the…
We construct a non-topological string solution for a supersymmetric gauge theory with $SU(2)\times U(1)$ gauge symmetry which is spontaneously broken to $U(1)$ by developing the vacuum expectation value of two doublet Higgses. It is a…
Four-dimensional string theories predict in general the existence of light exotic particles with fractional electric charges. Such particles could escape present observations if they are confined by a gauge group of the "hidden" sector into…
We investigate the formation of topological defects in the course of a dynamical phase transition with different boundary conditions in a ring from AdS/CFT correspondence. According to the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, quenching the system across…
We show that quantum systems of extended objects naturally give rise to a large class of exotic phases - namely topological phases. These phases occur when the extended objects, called ``string-nets'', become highly fluctuating and…
We investigate the electronic structure of twin boundaries in orthorhombically distorted high-T$_c$ materials using the quasiclassical theory of superconductivity. At low temperatures we find a local instability to a time-reversal symmetry…
This paper deals with the Berry phase, and the ontology of the electromagnetic vector potential. When the state of the system is gauge symmetric, the vector potential may be interpreted as a convenient tool of a mathematical formulation,…
In phase transition dynamics involving symmetry breaking, topological defects can be spontaneously created but it is suppressed in a spatially inhomogeneous system due to the spreading of the ordered phase information. We demonstrate the…
We discuss the possibility of finding scenarios, within type IIB string theory compactified on Calabi-Yau orientifolds with fluxes, for realizing gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking. We find that while in principle such scenarios are not…
The formation of topological defects during continuous phase transitions exhibits nonequilibrium universality. While the Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) predicts universal scaling of point-like defect numbers under slow driving, the…
The weakly-coupled heterotic string is known to have problems of dilaton/moduli stabilization, supersymmetry breaking (by hidden-sector gaugino condensation), gauge coupling unification (or the Newton's constant), QCD axion, as well as…
Using matrix product states, we explore numerically the phenomenology of string breaking in a non-Abelian lattice gauge theory, namely 1+1 dimensional SU(2). The technique allows us to study the static potential between external heavy…
A quantum simulator of U(1) lattice gauge theories can be implemented with superconducting circuits. This allows the investigation of confined and deconfined phases in quantum link models, and of valence bond solid and spin liquid phases in…
The Kibble-Zurek mechanism describes the evolution of topological defect structures like domain walls, strings, and monopoles when a system is driven through a second order phase transition. The model is used on very different scales like…
We propose a new mechanism for formation of topological defects in a U(1) model with a local gauge symmetry. This mechanism leads to definite predictions, which are qualitatively different from those of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism of global…
In the course of a non-equilibrium continuous phase transition, the dynamics ceases to be adiabatic in the vicinity of the critical point as a result of the critical slowing down (the divergence of the relaxation time in the neighborhood of…