Symmetry

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-64
Author(s):  
Adrian P Sutton

Symmetry arises not only in the invariance of an object to certain operations, but also in invariance of the equations governing motion of particles. Noether’s theorem connects continuous symmetries of equations of motion to conservation laws. The concept of broken symmetry arises in phase changes and topological defects, such as dislocations and disclinations. The principle of symmetry compensation reveals a deep sense in which symmetry is never destroyed – broken symmetries relate variants of an object displaying reduced symmetry. Symmetry plays a fundamental role in characterising the physical properties of crystals through Neumann’s principle. The concept of quasiperiodicity is introduced and it is shown how it is related to periodicity in a higher dimensional crystal.

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (a1) ◽  
pp. C1-C1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted Janssen ◽  
Aloysio Janner

2014 is the International Year of Crystallography. During at least fifty years after the discovery of diffraction of X-rays by crystals, it was believed that crystals have lattice periodicity, and crystals were defined by this property. Now it has become clear that there is a large class of compounds with interesting properties that should be called crystals as well, but are not lattice periodic. A method has been developed to describe and analyze these aperiodic crystals, using a higher-dimensional space. In this lecture the discovery of aperiodic crystals and the development of the formalism of the so-called superspace will be described. There are several classes of such materials. After the incommensurate modulated phases, incommensurate magnetic crystals, incommensurate composites and quasicrystals were discovered. They could all be studied using the same technique. Their main properties of these classes and the ways to characterize them will be discussed. The new family of aperiodic crystals has led also to new physical properties, to new techniques in crystallography and to interesting mathematical questions. Much has been done in the last fifty years by hundreds of crystallographers, crystal growers, physicists, chemists, mineralogists and mathematicians. Many new insights have been obtained. But there are still many questions, also of fundamental nature, to be answered. We end with a discussion of these open questions.


2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (12) ◽  
pp. 1544015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Bergshoeff ◽  
Wout Merbis ◽  
Alasdair J. Routh ◽  
Paul K. Townsend

Consistency of Einstein’s gravitational field equation [Formula: see text] imposes a “conservation condition” on the [Formula: see text]-tensor that is satisfied by (i) matter stress tensors, as a consequence of the matter equations of motion and (ii) identically by certain other tensors, such as the metric tensor. However, there is a third way, overlooked until now because it implies a “nongeometrical” action: one not constructed from the metric and its derivatives alone. The new possibility is exemplified by the 3D “minimal massive gravity” model, which resolves the “bulk versus boundary” unitarity problem of topologically massive gravity with Anti-de Sitter asymptotics. Although all known examples of the third way are in three spacetime dimensions, the idea is general and could, in principle, apply to higher dimensional theories.


2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 1141-1155 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. R. Pinzer ◽  
M. Schneebeli ◽  
T. U. Kaempfer

Abstract. Dry snow metamorphism under an external temperature gradient is the most common type of recrystallization of snow on the ground. The changes in snow microstructure modify the physical properties of snow, and therefore an understanding of this process is essential for many disciplines, from modeling the effects of snow on climate to assessing avalanche risk. We directly imaged the microstructural changes in snow during temperature gradient metamorphism (TGM) under a constant gradient of 50 K m−1, using in situ time-lapse X-ray micro-tomography. This novel and non-destructive technique directly reveals the amount of ice that sublimates and is deposited during metamorphism, in addition to the exact locations of these phase changes. We calculated the average time that an ice volume stayed in place before it sublimated and found a characteristic residence time of 2–3 days. This means that most of the ice changes its phase from solid to vapor and back many times in a seasonal snowpack where similar temperature conditions can be found. Consistent with such a short timescale, we observed a mass turnover of up to 60% of the total ice mass per day. The concept of hand-to-hand transport for the water vapor flux describes the observed changes very well. However, we did not find evidence for a macroscopic vapor diffusion enhancement. The picture of {temperature gradient metamorphism} produced by directly observing the changing microstructure sheds light on the micro-physical processes and could help to improve models that predict the physical properties of snow.


2021 ◽  
pp. 287-303
Author(s):  
J. Iliopoulos ◽  
T.N. Tomaras

The phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking is a common feature of phase transitions in both classical and quantum physics. In a first part we study this phenomenon for the case of a global internal symmetry and give a simple proof of Goldstone’s theorem. We show that a massless excitation appears, corresponding to every generator of a spontaneously broken symmetry. In a second part we extend these ideas to the case of gauge symmetries and derive the Brout–Englert–Higgs mechanism. We show that the gauge boson associated with the spontaneously broken generator acquires a mass and the corresponding field, which would have been the Goldstone boson, decouples and disappears. Its degree of freedom is used to allow the transition from a massless to a massive vector field.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
J. R. L. Santos ◽  
A. de Souza Dutra ◽  
O. C. Winter ◽  
R. A. C. Correa

In this work, we apply the so-called BPS method in order to obtain topological defects for a complex scalar field Lagrangian introduced by Trullinger and Subbaswamy. The BPS approach led us to compute new analytical solutions for this model. In our investigation, we found analytical configurations which satisfy the BPS first-order differential equations but do not obey the equations of motion of the model. Such defects were named nonphysical ones. In order to recover the physical meaning of these defects, we proposed a procedure which can transform them into BPS states of new scalar field models. The new models here founded were applied in the context of hybrid cosmological scenarios, where we derived cosmological parameters compatible with the observed Universe. Such a methodology opens a new window to connect different two scalar fields systems and can be implemented in several distinct applications such as Bloch Branes, Lorentz and Symmetry Breaking Scenarios, Q-Balls, Oscillons, Cosmological Contexts, and Condensed Matter Systems.


Author(s):  
Andrew J. Sinclair ◽  
John E. Hurtado

The Cayley transform and the Cayley–transform kinematic relationships are an important and fascinating set of results that have relevance in N –dimensional orientations and rotations. In this paper these results are used in two significant ways. First, they are used in a new derivation of the matrix form of the generalized Euler equations of motion for N –dimensional rigid bodies. Second, they are used to intimately relate the motion of general mechanical systems to the motion of higher–dimensional rigid bodies. This approach can be used to describe an enormous variety of systems, one example being the representation of general motion of an N –dimensional body as pure rotations of an ( N + 1)–dimensional body.


1993 ◽  
Vol 07 (01n03) ◽  
pp. 310-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian JANOT

Quasiperiodic structures can be described as physical irrational cut of structures which are periodic in higher dimensional spaces. Such a so-called quasicrystallography approach has been applied to several real quasicrystals. The Fourier components of these structures are densely distributed in the reciprocal space. This is at the origin of physical properties which may sound ackward for metallic systems. For instance, the electrical resistivity reaches very large values.


2002 ◽  
Vol 17 (29) ◽  
pp. 1945-1953 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. BAZEIA ◽  
W. FREIRE ◽  
L. LOSANO ◽  
R. F. RIBEIRO

We deal with the presence of topological defects in models for two real scalar fields. We comment on defects hosting topological defects and search for explicit defect solutions using the trial orbit method. As we know, under certain circumstances the second-order equations of motion can be solved by solutions of first-order differential equations. In this case we show that the trial orbit method can be used very efficiently to obtain explicit solutions.


1992 ◽  
Vol 07 (28) ◽  
pp. 7169-7184 ◽  
Author(s):  
MINOS AXENIDES

Relativistic bosonic field theories in 3+1 dimensions with exact global continuous symmetries and conserved charges Q may admit stable, finite energy, time dependent configurations (Q-balls) as solutions to their equations of motion. Previous work established their existence for both Abelian and non-Abelian symmetries. In the present work we elaborate on some more issues of stability and uniqueness that arise in the SO(3) and SU(3) renormalizable models. We consider the effect of explicit symmetry breaking in the spectrum of the SU(3) model, by identifying its order parameter with the meson octet and by choosing a mass matrix consistent with the Gell-Mann-Okubo mass relation. We demonstrate the existence of “isospin” and “strange” balls whose stability is due to the presence of residual global symmetries which are identified with the exact symmetries of isospin and strangeness of strong interactions.


2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (09) ◽  
pp. 1721-1727 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAUL S. WESSON

Using 5D membrane/induced-matter theory as a basis, we derive the equations of motion for a novel gauge. The latter admits both particle and wave behaviour, as well as super-communication (wherein there is causal contact in the higher-dimensional manifold among points which are disjoint in spacetime). Possible ways to test this model are suggested, notably using particle mass.


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