Condensed Matter Theory

Abstract:

Colloids with patchy metal coating under laser irradiation could act as local heat sources and generate temperature gradients that could induce self-propulsion and interactions between them. The collective behavior of a dilute solution of such thermally active particles is studied using a stochastic formulation. It is found that when the Soret coefficient is positive, the system could be described in a stationary state by the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation and could adopt density profiles with significant depletion in the middle region when confined. For colloids with a negative Soret coefficient, the system can be described as a dissipative equivalent of a gravitational system. It is shown that in this case the thermally active colloidal solution could undergo an instability at a critical laser intensity, which has similarities to a supernova explosion. © 2012 American Physical Society.

Abstract:

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. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.