No Arabic abstract
We classify the sectors of configurations that result from the dynamics of 2d crossing flux lines, which are the simplest degrees of freedom of the 3-coloring lattice model. We show that the dynamical obstruction is the consequence of two effects: (i) conservation laws described by a set of invariants that are polynomials of the winding numbers of the loop configuration, (ii) steric obstruction that prevents paths between configurations, for lack of free space. We argue that the invariants fully classify the configurations in five, chiral and achiral, sectors and no further obstruction in the limit of low-winding numbers.
We discuss persistent currents for particles with internal degrees of freedom. The currents arise because of winding properties essential for the chaotic motion of the particles in a confined geometry. The currents do not change the particle concentrations or thermodynamics, similar to the skipping orbits in a magnetic field.
We find the exact winding number distribution of Riemann-Liouville fractional Brownian motion for large times in two dimensions using the propagator of a free particle. The distribution is similar to the Brownian motion case and it is of Cauchy type. In addition we find the winding number distribution of fractal time process, i.e., time fractional Fokker-Planck equation, in the presence of finite size winding center.
Hard constraints imposed in statistical mechanics models can lead to interesting thermodynamical behaviors, but may at the same time raise obstructions in the thoroughfare to thermal equilibration. Here we study a variant of Baxters 3-color model in which local interactions and defects are included, and discuss its connection to triangular arrays of Josephson junctions of superconductors and textit{kagome} networks of superconducting wires. The model is equivalent to an Ising model in a hexagonal lattice with the constraint that the magnetization of each hexagon is $pm 6$ or 0. For ferromagnetic interactions, we find that the system is critical for a range of temperatures (critical line) that terminates when it undergoes an exotic first order phase transition with a jump from a zero magnetization state into the fully magnetized state at finite temperature. Dynamically, however, we find that the system becomes frozen into domains. The domain walls are made of perfectly straight segments, and domain growth appears frozen within the time scales studied with Monte Carlo simulations. This dynamical obstruction has its origin in the topology of the allowed reconfigurations in phase space, which consist of updates of closed loops of spins. As a consequence of the dynamical obstruction, there exists a dynamical temperature, lower than the (avoided) static critical temperature, at which the system is seen to jump from a ``supercooled liquid to a ``polycrystalline phase. In contrast, for antiferromagnetic interactions, we argue that the system orders for infinitesimal coupling because of the constraint, and we observe no interesting dynamical effects.
We give detailed descriptions of gluing pseudoholomorphic maps in symplectic geometry, especially in the presence of an obstruction bundle. The main motivation is to try to compare the symplectic and enumerative invariants of algebraic manifolds. These descriptions can also be used to enumerate rational curves with high-order degeneracies of local nature in projective spaces.
Topological invariants, such as the Chern number, characterise topological phases of matter. Here we provide a method to detect Chern numbers in systems with two distinct species of fermion, such as spins, orbitals or several atomic states. We analytically show that the Chern number can be decomposed as a sum of component specific winding numbers, which are themselves physically observable. We apply this method to two systems, the quantum spin Hall insulator and a staggered topological superconductor, and show that (spin) Chern numbers are accurately reproduced. The measurements required for constructing the component winding numbers also enable one to probe the entanglement spectrum with respect to component partitions. Our method is particularly suited to experiments with cold atoms in optical lattices where time-of-flight images can give direct access to the relevant observables.