Related papers: COSMOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS IN SUPERFLUIDS AND SUPERC…
The nematic-superconductor state is an example of a quantum liquid crystal that breaks gauge as well as rotation invariance. It was conjectured to exist in the pseudogap regime of the cuprates high $T_c$ superconductors. The…
The dynamics of typical phase transitions is studied out of equilibrium in weakly coupled inflaton-type scalar field theories in Minkowski space. The shortcomings of the effective potential and equilibrium descriptions are pointed out. A…
We consider simulations of Wigner crystals interacting with random quenched disorder in the presence of thermal fluctuations. When quenched disorder is absent, there is a well defined melting temperature determined by the proliferation of…
We investigate numerically the finite-temperature phase diagrams of the extended Bose-Hubbard model in a two-dimensional square lattice. In particular, we focus on the melting of supersolid phases of two different crystal orderings, stripe…
We investigate the mechanism by which topological defects form in first order phase transitions with a charged order parameter. We show how thick superconductor vortices and heavy cosmic strings form by trapping of magnetic flux. In an…
We use a series of molecular dynamics simulations, and analytical theory, to demonstrate that a system of hard spheres confined to a narrow cylindrical channel exhibits a continuous phase transition from an isotropic fluid at low densities,…
Topologically protected defects have been observed and studied in a wide range of fields, such as cosmology, spin systems, cold atoms and optics as they are quenched across a phase transition into an ordered state. Revealing their origin…
More recently STM experimets present firm evidence of some kind of charge modulation in underdoped cuprates. The peculiar observations of the above experiments are located in the so called pseudo-gap region of the phase diagram, just over…
Motivated by the study of cosmological phase transitions, our understanding of the formation of topological defects during spontaneous symmetry-breaking and the associated non-equilibrium field theory has recently changed. Experiments have…
We study the finite temperature properties of the extended Bose-Hubbard model on a cubic lattice. This model exhibits the so-called supersolid state. To start with, we investigate ordering processes by quantum Monte Carlo simulations, and…
Imagine a scenario in which the dark energy forms via the condensation of dark matter at some low redshift. The Compton wavelength therefore changes from small to very large at the transition, unlike quintessence or metamorphosis. We study…
In a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate, subject to the action of an alternating external field, coherent topological modes can be resonantly excited. Depending on the amplitude of the external field and detuning parameter, there are two…
We present a study of the 3d O(2) non-linear $\sigma$-model on the lattice, which exhibits topological defects in the form of vortices. They tend to organize into vortex lines that bear close analogies with global cosmic strings. Therefore,…
We present a new perspective on the symmetries that govern the formation of large-scale structures across the Universe, particularly focusing on the transition from the seeds of galaxy clusters to the seeds of galaxies themselves. We…
Many systems in nature and the synthetic world involve ordered arrangements of units on two-dimensional surfaces. We review here the fundamental role payed by both the topology of the underlying surface and its detailed curvature. Topology…
We study the formation of topological textures in a nonequilibrium phase transition of an overdamped classical O(3) model in 2+1 dimensions. The phase transition is triggered through an external, time-dependent effective mass, parameterized…
Stemming from the Heisenberg equations of motion, we study the time-evolution stability of the order parameters for the cold atoms on optical lattices. The requirement of this stability of the order parameters endows the phase diagram with…
The nature of phase boundaries in the QCD phase diagram has not been satisfactorily explored by experiments. Based on the Ginzburg-Landau free energy with a spatially inhomogeneous term as a function of a scalar order parameter, it is…
We introduce the theoretical framework we use to study the bewildering variety of phases in condensed--matter physics. We emphasize the importance of the breaking of symmetries, and develop the idea of an order parameter through several…
The dynamics of a symmetry breaking phase transition is studied in a radiation and matter dominated spatially flat FRW cosmology in the large N limit of a scalar field theory.The quantum density matrix is evolved from an initial state of…