Matchmaking Between Condensed Matter and Quantum Foundations, and Other Stories: My Six Decades in Physics

I present some rather selective reminiscences of my long career in physics, from my doctoral work to the present. I do not spend time on topics such as the nuclear magnetic resonance behavior of 3He, as I have reviewed the history extensively elsewhere, but rather concentrate, first, on my long-running project to make condensed matter physics relevant to questions in the foundations of quantum mechanics, and second, on various rather “quirky” problems such as an attempt to amplify the effects of the parity violation due to the weak interaction to a macroscopic level, and an unconventional proposal for the mechanism of the first-order phase transition between the A and B phases of superfluid liquid 3He.

Download Full-text

Surface ordering and destruction of the first order phase transition smectic A-smectic C* in free standing smectic films

Journal de Physique II ◽

10.1051/jp2:1994237 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 4 (10) ◽

pp. 1865-1874 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

E. Demikhov ◽

U. Hoffmann ◽

H. Stegemeyer

Keyword(s):

Phase Transition ◽

Order Phase Transition ◽

Free Standing ◽

First Order ◽

Surface Ordering ◽

Smectic A ◽

Smectic C ◽

First Order Phase Transition ◽

First Order Phase

Download Full-text

Gravitational wave signals of dark matter freeze-out

Journal of High Energy Physics ◽

10.1007/jhep02(2021)022 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Danny Marfatia ◽

Po-Yan Tseng

Keyword(s):

Phase Transition ◽

Dark Matter ◽

Gravitational Waves ◽

Order Phase Transition ◽

First Order ◽

Stochastic Background ◽

First Order Phase Transition ◽

Relic Abundance ◽

First Order Phase ◽

Freeze Out

Abstract We study the stochastic background of gravitational waves which accompany the sudden freeze-out of dark matter triggered by a cosmological first order phase transition that endows dark matter with mass. We consider models that produce the measured dark matter relic abundance via (1) bubble filtering, and (2) inflation and reheating, and show that gravitational waves from these mechanisms are detectable at future interferometers.

Download Full-text

Dark Matter production from relativistic bubble walls

Journal of High Energy Physics ◽

10.1007/jhep03(2021)288 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Aleksandr Azatov ◽

Miguel Vanvlasselaer ◽

Wen Yin

Keyword(s):

Phase Transition ◽

Dark Matter ◽

Electroweak Phase Transition ◽

First Order ◽

Matter Production ◽

First Order Phase Transition ◽

Relic Abundance ◽

Higgs Portal ◽

First Order Phase ◽

Gravitational Background

Abstract In this paper we present a novel mechanism for producing the observed Dark Matter (DM) relic abundance during the First Order Phase Transition (FOPT) in the early universe. We show that the bubble expansion with ultra-relativistic velocities can lead to the abundance of DM particles with masses much larger than the scale of the transition. We study this non-thermal production mechanism in the context of a generic phase transition and the electroweak phase transition. The application of the mechanism to the Higgs portal DM as well as the signal in the Stochastic Gravitational Background are discussed.

Download Full-text