Topological Symmetry Breaking Research Articles

Nematonics: from physics to photonics of reorientational solitons

ABSTRACT Nematic Liquid Crystals are birefringent soft matter exhibiting unique nonlocal and nonlinear optical properties. Due to the interaction with finite-size light beams, self-focusing via molecular reorientation can balance out diffraction and result in self-confined beams, namely spatial solitons or nematicons, operating as waveguides for copolarized optical signals. Since nematicon propagation and confinement are determined by material properties that can be tailored by external fields, they allow implementing various photonic functionalities: from signal steering and addressing to bistability, from topological and optical symmetry breaking to beaming of random laser emission, to mention a few. Such proof-of-principle applications make nematic liquid crystals and nematicons a versatile platform for the study of complex light–matter interactions in nonlocal dielectrics and the demonstration of all-optical photonic devices for signal processing.

Noninvertible duality transformation between symmetry-protected topological and spontaneous symmetry breaking phases

Noninvertible duality transformation between symmetry-protected topological and spontaneous symmetry breaking phases

The model for non-Abelian field topology for the multilayer fractional quantum anomalous Hall device

From the recent empirical discovery of the quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE), the interaction of the particle with spin–orbit coupling (SOC) plays an essential role in the cause of the QAHE, which includes three terms: external, internal, and chiral symmetric terms. Then, the non-Abelian quantum field theory was adopted to analyze and prove the conjecture on the causes that can lead to the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE). The spontaneously topological chiral symmetry breaking is the main contribution to the FQHE, which also includes two terms: the hopping of sublattice and Coulomb energy by the interaction of many-body particles. More generally, this exciton possesses an intermediate characteristic between the Wannier regimes and displays a peculiar two-dimensional wavefunction in the three-dimensional FQHE states. Finally, a bilayer three-dimensional model is proposed to implement the FQHE on the lattice by incorporating ferromagnetic dopants into three-dimensional topological insulative thin films. This study theoretically predicts the FQHE on the basis of other reports that have experimentally verified the rationality of the proposed model in magnetic topological insulators.

Spectral Splitting of Resonances in Topological Symmetry-Breaking Gyrotropic Nanostructures

We present a comprehensive study of plasmonic responses of a gyrotropic topological symmetry-breaking Mobius strip in the presence of an external magnetic field. The interplay between the magnetic ...

Ising chain with topological degeneracy induced by dissipation

The ground-state degeneracy of the quantum spin system is a characteristic of nontrivial topology, when it is gapped and robust against disordered perturbation. The corresponding quantum phase transition (QPT) is usually driven by a real parameter. We study a non-Hermitian Ising chain with two transverse fields, one real and another imaginary, based on the exact solution and numerical simulation. We show that topological degeneracy still exists and can be obtained by an imaginary transverse field from a topologically trivial phase of a Hermitian system. The topological degeneracy is robust against the random imaginary field and therefore expected to be immune to disordered dissipation from the spontaneous decay in experiment. The underlying mechanism is the nonlocal symmetry, which emerges only in thermodynamic limit and relates two categories of QPTs in the quantum spin system, rooted from topological order and symmetry breaking, respectively.

Anyon Condensation and Its Applications

Bose condensation is central to our understanding of quantum phases of matter. Here, we review Bose condensation in topologically ordered phases (also called topological symmetry breaking), where the condensing bosons have nontrivial mutual statistics with other quasiparticles in the system. We give a nontechnical overview of the relationship between the phases before and after condensation, drawing parallels with more familiar symmetry-breaking transitions. We then review two important applications of this phenomenon. First, we describe the equivalence between such condensation transitions and pairs of phases with gappable boundaries, as well as examples where multiple types of gapped boundary between the same two phases exist. Second, we discuss how such transitions can lead to global symmetries that exchange or permute anyon types. Finally, we discuss the nature of the critical point, which can be mapped to a conventional phase transition in some—but not all—cases.

Nematicon-enhanced spontaneous symmetry breaking

ABSTRACTWe investigate topological and optical spontaneous symmetry breaking in nematic liquid crystals subject to the Fréedericksz transition. Specular nematicon states couple to mirrored distributions of the director due to symmetry breaking, with transverse velocities controlled by beam power in the strong nonlinear regime. Hysteresis in transverse velocity versus incidence angle is observed in the soliton regime.

Frustrated topological symmetry breaking: Geometrical frustration and anyon condensation

We study the phase diagram of a topological string-net type lattice model in the presence of geometrically frustrated interactions. These interactions drive several phase transitions that reduce the topological order, leading to a rich phase diagram including both Abelian ($\mathbb{Z}_2$) and non-Abelian ($\text{Ising}\times \overline{\text{Ising}}$) topologically ordered phases, as well as phases with broken translational symmetry. Interestingly, one of these phases simultaneously exhibits (Abelian) topological order and long-ranged order due to translational symmetry breaking, with non-trivial interactions between excitations in the topological order and defects in the long-ranged order. We introduce a variety of effective models, valid along certain lines in the phase diagram, which can be used to characterize both topological and symmetry-breaking order in these phases, and in many cases allow us to characterize the phase transitions that separate them. We use exact diagonalization and high-order series expansion to study areas of the phase diagram where these models break down, and to approximate the location of the phase boundaries.

Topological Symmetry Breaking in Viscous Coarsening.

The crucial role of hydrodynamic pinch-off instabilities is evidenced in the coarsening stage of viscous liquids. The phase separation of a barium borosilicate glass melt is studied by insitu synchrotron tomography at high temperature. The high viscosity contrast between the less viscous phase and the more viscous phase induces a topological symmetry breaking: capillary breakups occur preferentially in the less viscous phase. As a result, contrasting morphologies are obtained in the two phases. This symmetry breaking is illustrated on three different glass compositions, corresponding to different volume fractions of the two phases. In particular, a fragmentation phenomenon, reminiscent of the end-pinching mechanism proposed by Stone and co-workers is evidenced in the less viscous phase.

Topological symmetry breaking: Domain walls and partial instability of chiral edges

In 2D topological systems chiral edges may exhibit a spectral change due to the formation of a Bose condensate and partial confinement in the bulk according to the topological symmetry breaking (TSB) mechanism. We analyze in detail what happens in the bulk as well as on the edge for a set of simple chiral fractional quantum Hall systems. TSB corresponds to the spontaneous breaking of a global discrete symmetry and therefore to the appearance of domain walls in the bulk and kinks on the edge. The walls are locally metastable and break if a confined particle-hole pair is created.

Point particle motion in topologically nontrivial spacetimes

It is well known that compactifying a space can break symmetries that are present in the covering space. In this paper we study the effects of such topological symmetry breaking on point particle motion when the particle is coupled to a massless field on the space. For a torus topology where Lorentz invariance is broken but translation invariance is maintained, particles can move at a constant velocity through the space; however, nonlocal, velocity-dependent forces arise whenever the particle is accelerated. For a topology where translation invariance is broken, such as the Klein bottle, interactions with the massless field generate an effective potential as a function of position. The potential creates special stable points in the space, and prevents constant velocity motion. The latter would appear to be the generic case. This class of effects may be applicable whenever a localized object moves through a compactified bulk, such as in brane-world cosmology, or some condensed matter systems.

Gauge theories on noncommutative Kähler manifolds

We study gauge theories on noncommutative homogeneous Kähler manifolds. To make the noncommutative manifolds, we use the deformation quantization with separation of variables for Kähler manifolds. We construct models of noncommutative gauge theories that are connected with usual Yang-Mills theories in the commutative limits. It is expected that the models connecting to commutative gauge theories are uniquely determined. As examples, we give noncommutative CPN and noncommutative CHN and gauge theories on them. Some kinds of gauge symmetry breaking and topological symmetry breaking by noncommutative deformations are observed by concrete geometrical calculations.

Order statistics inference for describing topological coupling and mechanical symmetry breaking in multidomain proteins

Cooperativity is a hallmark of proteins, many of which show a modular architecture comprising discrete structural domains. Detecting and describing dynamic couplings between structural regions is difficult in view of the many-body nature of protein-protein interactions. By utilizing the GPU-based computational acceleration, we carried out simulations of the protein forced unfolding for the dimer WW - WW of the all-β-sheet WW domains used as a model multidomain protein. We found that while the physically non-interacting identical protein domains (WW) show nearly symmetric mechanical properties at low tension, reflected, e.g., in the similarity of their distributions of unfolding times, these properties become distinctly different when tension is increased. Moreover, the uncorrelated unfolding transitions at a low pulling force become increasingly more correlated (dependent) at higher forces. Hence, the applied force not only breaks "the mechanical symmetry" but also couples the physically non-interacting protein domains forming a multi-domain protein. We call this effect "the topological coupling." We developed a new theory, inspired by order statistics, to characterize protein-protein interactions in multi-domain proteins. The method utilizes the squared-Gaussian model, but it can also be used in conjunction with other parametric models for the distribution of unfolding times. The formalism can be taken to the single-molecule experimental lab to probe mechanical cooperativity and domain communication in multi-domain proteins.

Topological singularities and symmetry breaking in development

The review presents a topological interpretation of some morphogenetic events through the use of well-known mathematical concepts and theorems. Spatial organization of the biological fields is analyzable in topological terms. Topological singularities inevitably emerging in biological morphogenesis are retained and transformed during pattern formation. It is the topological language that can provide strict and adequate description of various phenomena in developmental and evolutionary transformations. The relationship between local and global orders in metazoan development, i.e., between local morphogenetic processes and integral developmental patterns, is established. A topological inevitability of some developmental events through the use of classical topological concepts is discussed. This methodology reveals a topological imperative as a certain set of topological rules that constrains and directs embryogenesis. A breaking of spatial symmetry of preexisting pattern plays a critical role in biological morphogenesis in development and evolution.

Phase transitions in topological lattice models via topological symmetry breaking

We study transitions between phases of matter with topological order. By studying these transitions in exactly solvable lattice models we show how universality classes may be identified and critical properties described. As a familiar example to elucidate our results concretely, we describe in detail a transition between a fully gapped achiral 2D p-wave superconductor (p + ip for pseudo-spin up/p − ip for pseudo-spin down) to an s-wave superconductor. We show in particular that this transition is of the 2D transverse field Ising universality class.

Condensation of achiral simple currents in topological lattice models: Hamiltonian study of topological symmetry breaking

We describe a family of phase transitions connecting phases of differing nontrivial topological order by explicitly constructing Hamiltonians of the Levin-Wen [Levin and Wen, Phys. Rev. B 71, 045110 (2005)] type which can be tuned between two solvable points, each of which realizes a different topologically ordered phase. We show that the low-energy degrees of freedom near the phase transition can be mapped onto those of a Potts model, and we discuss the stability of the resulting phase diagram to small perturbations about the model. We further explain how the excitations in the condensed phase are formed from those in the original topological theory, some of which are split into multiple components by condensation, and we discuss the implications of our results for understanding the nature of general achiral topological phases in 2 $+$ 1 dimensions in terms of doubled Chern-Simons theories.

Topological symmetry breaking of self-interacting fractional Klein–Gordon field theories on toroidal spacetime

Quartic self-interacting fractional Klein–Gordon scalar massive and massless field theories on toroidal spacetime are studied. The effective potential and topologically generated mass are determined using zeta-function regularization technique. Renormalization of these quantities are derived. Conditions for symmetry breaking are obtained analytically. Simulations are carried out to illustrate regions or values of compactified dimensions where symmetry-breaking mechanisms appear.

Fermion vacuum energies in brane world models

The fermion representations and boundary conditions in five dimensional anti de Sitter space are described in detail. In each case the one loop effective action is calculated for massless fermions. The possibility of topological or Wilson loop symmetry breaking is discussed.

Topological Symmetry Breaking on Einstein Manifolds

It is known that if gauge conditions have Gribov zero modes, then topological symmetry is broken. In this paper we apply it to the Witten type topological gravitational theory in dimension n ≥ 3. Our choice of the gauge condition for conformal invariance is R + α = 0, where R is the Ricci scalar curvature. We find when α ≠ 0, topological symmetry is not broken, but when α = 0 and solutions of the Einstein equations exist then topological symmetry is broken. These conditions connect to the Yamabe conjecture, namely negative constant scalar curvature exist on manifolds of any topology, but existence of nonnegative constant scalar curvature is restricted by topology. This fact is easily seen in this theory. Topological symmetry breaking means BRS symmetry breaking in cohomological field theory. But it is found that another BRS symmetry can be defined and physical states are redefined. The divergence due to the Gribov zero modes is regularized, and the theory after topological symmetry breaking becomes semiclassical Einstein gravitational theory under a special definition of observables.

Topological matter in four dimensions

Topological models involving matter couplings to Donaldson-Witten theory are presented. The construction is carried out using both the topological algebra and its central extension, which arise from the twisting of N = 2 supersymmetry in four dimensions. The framework on which the construction is based is constituted by the superspace associated to these algebras. The models show new features of topological quantum field theories which could provide either a mechanism for topological symmetry breaking, or the analog of two-dimensional mirror symmetry in four dimensions.