Topological Mass Research Articles

BPS objects in D = 7 supergravity and their M-theory origin

We study several different types of BPS flows within minimal mathcal{N}=1 , D = 7 supergravity with SU(2) gauge group and non-vanishing topological mass. After reviewing some known domain wall solutions involving only the metric and the ℝ+ scalar field, we move to considering more general flows involving a “dyonic” profile for the 3-form gauge potential. In this context, we consider flows featuring a Mkw3 as well as an AdS3 slicing, write down the corresponding flow equations, and integrate them analytically to obtain many examples of asymptotically AdS7 solutions in presence of a running 3-form. Furthermore, we move to adding the possibility of non-vanishing vector fields, find the new corresponding flows and integrate them numerically. Finally, we discuss the eleven-dimensional interpretation of the aforementioned solutions as effective descriptions of M2 − M5 bound states.

Interaction-induced phase transitions of type-II Weyl semimetals

The study of Weyl semimetals (WSMs) lies at the forefront of the nontrivial topological phenomena in condensed-matter physics. In this work, we study the effect of on-site repulsive Hubbard interaction on the WSM system with a nonzero tilt at half filling. Within the Hartree-Fock mean-field approximation, we treat the Hubbard interaction self-consistently and find that the Fock exchange field vanishes, while the Hartree field can renormalize the topological mass, the tilt, and the Fermi velocity of the Weyl cones. When the renormalized tilt is larger than the renormalized Fermi velocity, the Hubbard interaction will induce the quantum phase transition from a type-I WSM to a type-II WSM. We then provide the interaction-induced phase diagrams of WSMs in different parametric spaces, in which the antiferromagnetic order at strong interaction is also considered. In addition, we analyze another model hosting two pairs of Weyl nodes, and similar results are obtained. The implications of these results are discussed.

Remarks on a B ∧ F model with topological mass from gauging spin

Aspects of screening and confinement are reassessed for a model with topological mass with the gauging of spin. Our discussion is carried out using the gauge-invariant, but path-dependent, variables formalism. We explicitly show that the static potential profile is the sum of a Yukawa and a linear potential, leading to the confinement of static external charges. Interestingly enough, similar results are obtained in a theory of antisymmetric tensor fields that results from the condensation of topological defects as a consequence of the Julia-Toulouse mechanism.

Phase Transition in Topologically Massive QED

There is chiral like symmetry for 4-component massless fermion in (2+1)-dimensional gauge theory.Since QED$_{3}$ with Chern-Simons term contains vortex solution for vector potential,one may expect vortex driven phase transition as Kosterlitz-Thouless type where chiral condensate is washed away at zero temperature.To study this possibility,we evaluate the fermion propagator by Dyson-Schwinger equation numerically and spectral function analytically in the Landau gauge.For quenched case we adopt Ball-Chiu vertex to keep gauge invariance of the results.The critical value of topological mass,above which chiral condensate washed away, turned out to be $O(10^{-2})e^{2}$ at least for weak coupling in both cases.

Disorder-induced phase transitions of type-II Weyl semimetals

Weyl semimetals are a newly discovered class of materials that host relativistic massless Weyl fermions as their low-energy bulk excitations. Among this new class of materials, there exist two general types of semimetals that are of particular interest: type-I Weyl semimetals, that have broken inversion or time-reversal symmetry symmetry, and type-II Weyl semimetals, that additionally breaks Lorentz invariance. In this work, we use Born approximation to analytically demonstrate that the type-I Weyl semimetals may undergo a quantum phase transition to type-II Weyl semimetals in the presence of the finite charge and magnetic disorder when non-zero tilt exist. The phase transition occurs when the disorder renormalizes the topological mass, thereby reducing the Fermi velocity near the Weyl cone below the tilt of the cone. We also confirm the presence of the disorder induced phase transition in Weyl semimetals using exact diagonalization of a three-dimensional tight-binding model to calculate the resultant phase diagram of the type-I Weyl semimetal.

Influence of Polymer Architecture on the Electrochemical Deposition of Polyelectrolytes

This study demonstrates the effect of polymer topology and molar mass on the electrodeposition of preformed polyelectrolytes. The polyelectrolyte solubility is manipulated electrochemically using a counterion switching approach. Upon this, a triggered film formation occurs upon oxidation of hexacyanoferrate(II). The resulting Pt-electrode deposit consists of polycationic chains, namely poly{[2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]trimethylammonium chloride} (PMOTAC), which are physically crosslinked by polymer-complexing ferricyanides. Within this study the architecture of the polyelectrolyte is varied from monomeric units over linear and star-shaped polymers to network-like microgel colloids. Film deposition is observed only for linear and star-shaped polymers being pronounced for shorter linear chains at equimolar charge ratios. Quantification is achieved by help of the deposition efficiency DE obtained by analyzing the currents of a rotating ring disk electrode (RRDE) during hydrodynamic voltammetry. DE relates the amount of deposited ferricyanides to the total amount of electrochemically-produced ferricyanides. DE is used to estimate the deposited mass and film thickness showing good agreement with the film thickness determined experimentally by Scanning Force Microscopy. For future applications these results might help optimizing beneficial film formation or minimizing detrimental film formation during other procedures.

Spin Gauge Interactions as a Topological Mechanism of Superconductivity

We talk about a low energy, effective, topological theory of superconductivity in which a topological mass term is radiatively induced in one loop effective action. In this field theoretic model, an antisymmetric tensor field couples with the vorticity current of charged Dirac fermions in the Lagrangian. The fermion loop generates a coupling between the gauge field and the antisymmetric tensor field below an ultraviolet cut-off. The spin interactions mediated by the antisymmetric tensor field induces a mass for the photon field indicating Meissner effect. The dual antisymmetric tensor field produces a current which satisfies the relativistic version of the London equations of superconductivity. In the non-relativistic limit, the static effective potential shows a linear, always attractive term between two electrons. Thus, the theory can be considered as an alternative, low energy, effective field theory of superconductivity without spontaneous symmetry breaking.

Competing adiabatic Thouless pumps in enlarged parameter spaces

The transfer of conserved charges through insulating matter via smooth deformations of the Hamiltonian is known as quantum adiabatic, or Thouless, pumping. Central to this phenomenon are Hamiltonians whose insulating gap is controlled by a multi-dimensional (usually two-dimensional) parameter space in which paths can be defined for adiabatic changes in the Hamiltonian, i.e., without closing the gap. Here, we extend the concept of Thouless pumps of band insulators by considering a larger, three-dimensional parameter space. We show that the connectivity of this parameter space is crucial for defining quantum pumps, demonstrating that, as opposed to the conventional two-dimensional case, pumped quantities depend not only on the initial and final points of Hamiltonian evolution but also on the class of the chosen path and preserved symmetries. As such, we distinguish the scenarios of closed/open paths of Hamiltonian evolution, finding that different closed cycles can lead to the pumping of different quantum numbers, and that different open paths may point to distinct scenarios for surface physics. As explicit examples, we consider models similar to simple models used to describe topological insulators, but with doubled degrees of freedom compared to a minimal topological insulator model. The extra fermionic flavors from doubling allow for extra gapping terms/adiabatic parameters - besides the usual topological mass which preserves the topology-protecting discrete symmetries - generating an enlarged adiabatic parameter-space. We consider cases in one and three \emph{spatial} dimensions, and our results in three dimensions may be realized in the context of crystalline topological insulators, as we briefly discuss.

Fermi surface evolution of Na-doped PbTe studied through density functional theory calculations and Shubnikov–de Haas measurements

We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of the evolution of the low-temperature Fermi surface of lead telluride, PbTe, when holes are introduced through sodium substitution on the lead site. Our Shubnikov-de-Haas measurements for samples with carrier concentrations up to $9.4\times10^{19}$cm$^{-3}$ (0.62 Na atomic $\%$) show the qualitative features of the Fermi surface evolution (topology and effective mass) predicted by our density functional (DFT) calculations within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA): we obtain perfect ellipsoidal L-pockets at low and intermediate carrier concentrations, evolution away from ideal ellipsoidicity for the highest doping studied, and cyclotron effective masses increasing monotonically with doping level, implying deviations from perfect parabolicity throughout the whole band. Our measurements show, however, that standard DFT calculations underestimate the energy difference between the L-point and $\Sigma$-line valence band maxima, since our data are consistent with occupation of a single Fermi surface pocket over the entire doping range studied, whereas the calculations predict an occupation of the $\Sigma$-pockets at higher doping. Our results for low and intermediate compositions are consistent with a non-parabolic Kane-model dispersion, in which the L-pockets are ellipsoids of fixed anisotropy throughout the band, but the effective masses depend strongly on Fermi energy.

The complete classification of five-dimensional Dirichlet-Voronoi polyhedra of translational lattices.

This paper reports on the full classification of Dirichlet-Voronoi polyhedra and Delaunay subdivisions of five-dimensional translational lattices. A complete list is obtained of 110 244 affine types (L-types) of Delaunay subdivisions and it turns out that they are all combinatorially inequivalent, giving the same number of combinatorial types of Dirichlet-Voronoi polyhedra. Using a refinement of corresponding secondary cones, 181 394 contraction types are obtained. The paper gives details of the computer-assisted enumeration, which was verified by three independent implementations and a topological mass formula check.

Two-dimensional chromatographic separation of branched polyesters according to degree of branching and molar mass

Abstract Two-dimensional liquid chromatographic separations of blends of silylated linear and hyperbranched polyesters based on 4,4′-hydroxyphenyl-4′-(tert-butylmethylsiloxy)-phenylvaleric acid were performed using solvent gradient interaction chromatography (SGIC) in the first and size exclusion chromatography (SEC) in the second dimension. The blends analyzed varied in the ratio of branched to linear polymer in order to investigate the potential of the proposed method. The chromatographic experiments proved the capability of two-dimensional chromatography to simultaneously separate polymers according to their topology and molar mass. Baseline separation of high molar mass linear and branched polymers was achieved. The two-dimensional separations for the first time allowed reasonably estimating the amount of statistically branched structures in a matrix of linear ones.

Quark ACM with topologically generated gluon mass

We investigate the effect of a small, gauge-invariant mass of the gluon on the anomalous chromomagnetic moment (ACM) of quarks by perturbative calculations at one-loop level. The mass of the gluon is taken to have been generated via a topological mass generation mechanism, in which the gluon acquires a mass through its interaction with an antisymmetric tensor field [Formula: see text]. For a small gluon mass ([Formula: see text] 10 MeV), we calculate the ACM at momentum transfer [Formula: see text]. We compare those with the ACM calculated for the gluon mass arising from a Proca mass term. We find that the ACM of up, down, strange and charm quarks vary significantly with the gluon mass, while the ACM of top and bottom quarks show negligible gluon mass dependence. The mechanism of gluon mass generation is most important for the strange quarks ACM, but not so much for the other quarks. We also show the results at [Formula: see text]. We find that the dependence on gluon mass at [Formula: see text] is much less than at [Formula: see text] for all quarks.

Cantorian-Fractal Kinetic Energy and Potential Energy as the Ordinary and Dark Energy Density of the Cosmos Respectively

In a one-dimension Mauldin-Williams Random Cantor Set Universe, the Sigalotti topological speed of light is where . It follows then that the corresponding topological acceleration must be a golden mean downscaling of c namely . Since the maximal height in the one-dimensional universe must be where is the unit interval length and note that the topological mass (m) and topological dimension (D) where m = D = 5 are that of the largest unit sphere volume, we can conclude that the potential energy of classical mechanics translates to . Remembering that the kinetic energy is , then by the same logic we see that when m = 5 is replaced by for reasons which are explained in the main body of the present work. Adding both expressions together, we find Einstein’s maximal energy . As a general conclusion, we note that within high energy cosmology, the sharp distinction between potential energy and kinetic energy of classical mechanics is blurred on the cosmic scale. Apart of being an original contribution, the article presents an almost complete bibliography on the Cantorian-fractal spacetime theory.

Quantum Hall effect with small numbers of vortices in Bose-Einstein condensates

When vortices are displaced in Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC), the Magnus force gives the system a momentum transverse in the direction to the displacement. We show that Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) in long channels with vortices exhibit a quantization of the current response with respect to the spatial vortex distribution. The quantization originates from the well-known topological property of the phase around a vortex --- it is an integer multiple of $ 2 \pi $. In a similar way to the integer quantum Hall effect, the current along the channel is related to this topological phase, and can be extracted from two experimentally measurable quantities: the total momentum of the BEC and the spatial distribution. The quantization is in units of $ m/2h $, where $ m $ is the mass of the atoms and $ h $ is Planck's constant. We derive an exact vortex momentum-displacement relation for BECs in long channels under general circumstances. Our results presents the possibility that the configuration described here can be used as a novel way of measuring the mass of the atoms in the BEC using a topological invariant of the system. If an accurate determination of the plateaus are experimentally possible, this gives the possibility of a topological quantum mass standard and precise determination of the fine structure constant.

A 3-form gauge potential in 5D in connection with a possible dark sector of 4D-electrodynamics

We here propose a 5-dimensional {\bf Abelian gauge} model based on the mixing between a $U(1)$ potential and an Abelian 3-form field by means of a topological mass term. An extended covariant derivative is introduced to minimally couple a Dirac field to the $U(1)$ potential, while this same covariant derivative non-minimally couples the 3-form field to the charged fermion. A number of properties are discussed in 5D; in particular, the appearance of a topological fermionic current. A 4-dimensional reduced version of the model is investigated and, { \bf in addition to the $U(1)$ electric- and magnetic-sort of fields,} there emerges an extra set of electric- and magnetic-like fields which contribute a negative pressure and may be identified as a possible fraction of dark energy. The role of the topological fermionic current is also contemplated upon dimensional reduction from 5D to 4D. Other issues we present in 4 space-time dimensions are the emergence {\bf of a pseudo-scalar massive particle,} an extra massive neutral gauge boson,{\bf which we interpret as a kind of paraphoton}, and the calculation of spin- and velocity-dependent interparticle potentials associated to the exchange of the intermediate bosonic fields of the model.

4D topological mass by gauging spin

We propose a spin gauge field theory in which the curl of a Dirac fermion current density plays the role of the pseudovector charge density. In this field-theoretic model, spin interactions are mediated by a single scalar gauge boson in its antisymmetric tensor formulation. We show that these long range spin interactions induce a gauge invariant photon mass in the one-loop effective action. The fermion loop generates a coupling between photons and the spin gauge boson, which acquires thus charge. This coupling represents also an induced, gauge invariant, topological mass for the photons, leading to the Meissner effect. The one-loop effective equations of motion for the charged spin gauge boson are the London equations. We propose thus spin gauge interactions as an alternative, topological mechanism for superconductivity in which no spontaneous symmetry breaking is involved.

RG flows from (1,0) 6D SCFTs to N = 1 SCFTs in four and three dimensions

We study $AdS_5\times \Sigma_2$ and $AdS_4\times \Sigma_3$ solutions of $N=2$, $SO(4)$ gauged supergravity in seven dimensions with $\Sigma_{2,3}$ being $S^{2,3}$ or $H^{2,3}$. The $SO(4)$ gauged supergravity is obtained from coupling three vector multiplets to the pure $N=2$, $SU(2)$ gauged supergravity. With a topological mass term for the 3-form field, the $SO(4)\sim SU(2)\times SU(2)$ gauged supergravity admits two supersymmetric $AdS_7$ critical points, with $SO(4)$ and $SO(3)$ symmetries, provided that the two $SU(2)$ gauge couplings are different. These vacua correspond to $N=(1,0)$ superconformal field theories (SCFTs) in six dimensions. In the case of $\Sigma_2$, we find a class of $AdS_5\times S^2$ and $AdS_5\times H^2$ solutions preserving eight supercharges and $SO(2)\times SO(2)$ symmetry, but only $AdS_5\times H^2$ solutions exist for $SO(2)$ symmetry. These should correspond to some $N=1$ four-dimensional SCFTs. We also give RG flow solutions from the $N=(1,0)$ SCFTs in six dimensions to these four-dimensional fixed points including a two-step flow from the $SO(4)$ $N=(1,0)$ SCFT to the $SO(3)$ $N=(1,0)$ SCFT that eventually flows to the $N=1$ SCFT in four dimensions. For $AdS_4\times\Sigma_3$, we find a class of $AdS_4\times S^3$ and $AdS_4\times H^3$ solutions with four supercharges, corresponding to $N=1$ SCFTs in three dimensions. When the two $SU(2)$ gauge couplings are equal, only $AdS_4\times H^3$ are possible. The uplifted solutions for equal $SU(2)$ gauge couplings to eleven dimensions are also given.

Yang-Mills as Massive Chern-Simons Theory: A Third Way to Three-Dimensional Gauge Theories

The Yang-Mills (YM) equation in three spacetime dimensions (3D) can be modified to include a novel parity-preserving interaction term, with an inverse mass parameter, in addition to a possible topological mass term. The novelty is that the modified YM equation is not the Euler-Lagrange equation of any gauge-invariant local action for the YM gauge potential alone. Instead, consistency is achieved in the "third way" exploited by 3D minimal massive gravity. We relate our results to the "novel Higgs mechanism" for Chern-Simons gauge theories.

Charge-varying sine-Gordon deformed defects

Sine-Gordon deformed defects that exhibit unusual phenomenological features on the topological charge are investigated. The possibility of a smooth and continuous transition between topological (non-null charge) and non-topological (null charge) scenarios of deformed defects supported by sine-Gordon structures is evinced by the analytical calculation of topological charges and localized energy distributions. By describing cyclic deformation chains, we show that a triggering sine-Gordon model simultaneously supports kink- and lump-like defects, whose topological mass values are closed by trigonometric or hyperbolic successive deformations. In spite of preserving analytical closure relations constraining the topological masses of 3- and 4-cyclically deformed defects, the deformation chains produce kinks and lumps which exhibit non-monotonic behavior and extra inflection points. The outcome of our analysis suggests that cyclic deformations create novel scenarios of physical and mathematical applicability of defect structures supported by the sine-Gordon theory.

Topologically massive Yang–Mills theory and link invariants

Topologically massive Yang–Mills theory is studied in the framework of geometric quantization. Since this theory has a mass gap proportional to the topological mass m, Yang–Mills contribution decays exponentially at very large distances compared to 1/m, leaving a pure Chern–Simons theory with level number k. In this paper, the near Chern–Simons limit is studied where the distance is large enough to give an almost topological theory, with a small contribution from the Yang–Mills term. It is shown that this almost topological theory consists of two copies of Chern–Simons with level number k/2, very similar to the Chern–Simons splitting of topologically massive AdS gravity. Also, gauge invariance of these half-Chern–Simons theories is discussed. As m approaches to infinity, the split parts add up to give the original Chern–Simons term with level k. Reduction of the phase space is discussed in this limit. Finally, a relation between the observables of topologically massive Yang–Mills theory and Chern–Simons theory is shown. One of the two split Chern–Simons pieces is shown to be associated with Wilson loops while the other with 't Hooft loops. This allows one to use skein relations to calculate topologically massive Yang–Mills theory observables in the near Chern–Simons limit.