Related papers: A Topological Criterion for Alice Strings
Symmetry breaking can produce ``Alice'' strings, which alter scattered charges and carry monopole number and charge when twisted into loops. Alice behavior arises algebraically, when strings obstruct unbroken symmetries -- a fragile…
Symmetry breaking can produce ``Alice'' strings, which alter scattered charges and carry monopole number and charge when twisted into loops. We apply recent topological results, fixing Alice strings' stability and prescribing their twisting…
Spontaneous breaking of global symmetries can produce ``Alice'' strings: line defects which make unbroken symmetries multivalued, induce apparent charge violation via Aharonov-Bohm interactions, and form point defects when twisted into…
Alice string is a topological defect with a very peculiar feature. When a defect with a monopole charge encircles an Alice string, the monopole charge changes sign. In this work, we generalize this notion to momentum space of periodic media…
We analyze the unlocalized ``Cheshire charge'' carried by ``Alice strings.'' The magnetic charge on a string loop is carefully defined, and the transfer of magnetic charge from a monopole to a string loop is analyzed using global…
Alice strings are cosmic strings that turn matter into antimatter. Although they arise naturally in many GUT's, it has long been believed that because of the monopole problem they can have no cosmological effects. We show this conclusion to…
We study the formation of monopoles and strings in a model where SU(3) is spontaneously broken to U(2)=[SU(2)\times U(1)]/\ZZ_2, and then to U(1). The first symmetry breaking generates monopoles with both SU(2) and U(1) charges since the…
We show that in certain theories with topologically trivial quotient space of spontaneously broken gauge symmetry there can exist topologically stable strings that carry nonabelian gauge flux. These objects result from the ``accidental''…
It is shown that topologically stable cosmic strings can, in fact, appear to end or to break, even in theories without monopoles. This can occur whenever the spatial topology of the universe is nontrivial. For the case of Abelian-Higgs…
When a charged particle encircles around an Alice string, it changes the sign of the electric charge. In this paper we find a BPS-saturated Alice string in $U(1)\times SO(3)$ gauge theory with charged complex scalar fields belonging to the…
We develop a formalism for the quantization of topologically stable excitations in the 4-dimensional abelian lattice gauge theory. The excitations are global and local (Abrikosov-Nielsen-Olesen) strings and monopoles. The operators of…
In this letter a new class of twisted strings is presented, with an asymmetry between the holomorphic and antiholomorphic sectors parametrized by an integer $N$. Their physical content is given by the massless resonances of the closed…
In this paper we describe a new type of topological defect, called a homilia string, which is stabilized via interactions with the string network. Using analytical and numerical techniques, we investigate the stability and dynamics of…
We employ a variety of symmetry breaking patterns in $SO(10)$ and $E_6$ Grand Unified Theories to demonstrate the appearance of topological defects including magnetic monopoles, strings, and necklaces. We show that independent of the…
Recent formal classifications of crystalline topological insulators predict that the combination of time-reversal and rotational symmetry gives rise to topological invariants beyond the ones known for other lattice symmetries. Although the…
Perturbative string amplitudes are correctly derived from the string geometry theory, which is one of the candidates of a non-perturbative formulation of string theory. In order to derive non-perturbative effects rather easily, we formulate…
We extend a recently defined measure of symmetry breaking, the entanglement asymmetry, to higher-form symmetries. In particular, we focus on Abelian topological order in two dimensions, which spontaneously breaks a 1-form symmetry. Using…
(3+1)D topological phases of matter can host a broad class of non-trivial topological defects of codimension-1, 2, and 3, of which the well-known point charges and flux loops are special cases. The complete algebraic structure of these…
Defects in topologically ordered models have interesting properties that are reminiscent of the anyonic excitations of the models themselves. For example, dislocations in the toric code model are known as twists and possess properties that…
Loop amplitudes in string theories reduce to those of gauge theories and (super)gravity in their worldline description as the inverse string tension $\alpha'$ tends to zero. The appearance of reducible diagrams in these $\alpha' \rightarrow…