This thesis addresses the emergent electrostatics of two-dimensional, toroidal magnetic models that possess XY symmetry, providing a platform for novel investigations into the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase transition.The BKT transition drives the thermal dissociation of bound pairs of topological defects in many two-dimensional systems, including the two-dimensional XY model of magnetism. The XY model is closely analogous to the two-dimensional Coulomb gas, but can be simulated without computing the long-range interactions of the Coulombic system. This thesis elucidates this paradox by showing that Villain's approximation to the XY model is strictly equivalent to the Maggs-Rossetto (MR) electrostatic model when applied to the two-dimensional Coulomb gas.The mapping is used to probe the BKT transition through the application of the MR algorithm to the two-dimensional Coulomb gas. By simulating the Coulombic system, fluctuations in the winding of charges around the torus are shown to turn on at the BKT transition temperature. These topological-sector fluctuations in the electric field therefore signal the high-temperature phase of the transition.It is then shown that the effective critical exponent of Bramwell-Holdsworth (BH) theory can be measured in superfluid 4He films, which correspond to effective Coulomb gases in the limit of large but finite system size. With the Coulombic system taken as the base BKT system, it is inferred that BH theory is a general property of BKT systems.
This thesis addresses the emergent electrostatics of two-dimensional, toroidal magnetic models that possess XY symmetry, providing a platform for novel investigations into the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase transition.The BKT transition drives the thermal dissociation of bound pairs of topological defects in many two-dimensional systems, including the two-dimensional XY model of magnetism. The XY model is closely analogous to the two-dimensional Coulomb gas, but can be simulated without computing the long-range interactions of the Coulombic system. This thesis elucidates this paradox by showing that Villain's approximation to the XY model is strictly equivalent to the Maggs-Rossetto (MR) electrostatic model when applied to the two-dimensional Coulomb gas.The mapping is used to probe the BKT transition through the application of the MR algorithm to the two-dimensional Coulomb gas. By simulating the Coulombic system, fluctuations in the winding of charges around the torus are shown to turn on at the BKT transition temperature. These topological-sector fluctuations in the electric field therefore signal the high-temperature phase of the transition.It is then shown that the effective critical exponent of Bramwell-Holdsworth (BH) theory can be measured in superfluid 4He films, which correspond to effective Coulomb gases in the limit of large but finite system size. With the Coulombic system taken as the base BKT system, it is inferred that BH theory is a general property of BKT systems.
The Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase transition drives the unbinding of topological defects in many two-dimensional systems. In the two-dimensional Coulomb gas, it corresponds to an insulator-conductor transition driven by charge deconfinement. We investigate the global topological properties of this transition, both analytically and by numerical simulation, using a lattice-field description of the two-dimensional Coulomb gas on a torus. The BKT transition is shown to be an ergodicity breaking between the topological sectors of the electric field, which implies a definition of topological order in terms of broken ergodicity. The breakdown of local topological order at the BKT transition leads to the excitation of global topological defects in the electric field, corresponding to different topological sectors. The quantized nature of these classical excitations, and their strict suppression by ergodicity breaking in the low-temperature phase, afford striking global signatures of topological-sector fluctuations at the BKT transition. We discuss how these signatures could be detected in experiments on, for example, magnetic films and cold-atom systems.
We investigate the nature of the phase transition occurring in a planar XY-model spin system with dipole–dipole interactions. It is demonstrated that a Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless (BKT) type of phase transition always takes place at a finite temperature separating the ordered (ferro) and the disordered (para) phases. The low-temperature phase corresponds to an ordered state with thermal fluctuations, composed of a 'gas' of bound vortex–antivortex pairs, which would, when considered isolated, be characterized by a constant vortex–antivortex attraction force which is due to the dipolar interaction term in the Hamiltonian. Using a topological charge model, we show that small bound pairs are easily polarized, and screen the vortex–antivortex interaction in sufficiently large pairs. Screening changes the linear attraction potential of vortices to a logarithmic one, and leads to the familiar pair dissociation mechanism of the BKT type phase transition. The topological charge model is confirmed by numerical simulations, in which we demonstrate that the transition temperature slightly increases when compared with the BKT result for short-range interactions.
Abstract Topological phases have been a central focus of condensed-matter physics for over 50 years. Along with many experimental applications, they have provided much intellectual interest due to their characterization via some form of topological ordering, as opposed to the symmetry-breaking ordering of conventional continuous phase transitions. This distinction is most subtle in the case of the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless (BKT) transition as its experimental realizations appear to break U(1) symmetry at low temperature. It also presents two further paradoxes: (i) its prototypical short-range interacting planar XY spin model behaves as an emergent long-range interacting electrolyte; (ii) its topological ordering is not accompanied by a topological nonergodicity within the BKT picture. This review paper addresses these three interconnected questions. We review a series of papers that demonstrate that U(1) symmetry is indeed broken, but within a broader framework than that traditionally used to characterize broken symmetry. We discuss recovery of this symmetry by breaking velocity-symmetry in a deterministic Markov process. We then expand on a modern field theory of the emergent electrolyte that maps directly from the spin field to an emergent lattice electric field governed by an augmented electrostatic Boltzmann distribution. This local model of electrolyte physics resolves both the short-range–long-range paradox and the question of topological nonergodicity—as in contrast with the BKT picture, it describes global topological defects and their nonergodic freezing by the topological ordering. It also connects the broken U(1) symmetry with the topological ordering, providing a comprehensive framework for broken symmetry at the transition. We introduce long-time topological stability as a measure of topological nonergodicity—within a general framework for weakly broken ergodicity.
The Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition is the prototype of a phase transition driven by the formation and interaction of topological defects in two-dimensional (2D) systems. In typical models these are vortices: above a transition temperature TBKT vortices are free, below this transition temperature they get confined. In this work we extend the concept of BKT transition to quantum systems in two dimensions. In particular, we demonstrate that a zero-temperature quantum BKT phase transition, driven by a coupling constant can occur in 2D models governed by an effective gauge field theory with a diverging dielectric constant. One particular example is that of a compact U(1) gauge theory with a diverging dielectric constant, where the quantum BKT transition is induced by non-relativistic, purely 2D magnetic monopoles, which can be viewed also as electric vortices. These quantum BKT transitions have the same diverging exponent z as the quantum Griffiths transition but have nothing to do with disorder.
The Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless (BKT) transition is the prototype of a phase transition driven by the formation and interaction of topological defects in two-dimensional (2D) systems. In typical models, these are vortices: above a transition temperature TBKT, vortices are free; below this transition temperature, they get confined. In this work, we extend the concept of BKT transition to quantum systems in two dimensions. In particular, we demonstrate that a zero-temperature quantum BKT phase transition driven by a coupling constant can occur in 2D models governed by an effective gauge field theory with a diverging dielectric constant. One particular example is that of a compact U(1) gauge theory with a diverging dielectric constant, where the quantum BKT transition is induced by non-relativistic, purely 2D magnetic monopoles, which can be viewed also as electric vortices. These quantum BKT transitions have the same diverging exponent z as the quantum Griffiths transition but are not related to disorder.
Spinor Bose gases may exhibit both phase and ferromagnetic order. Consequently, they may support superflow of both mass and spin currents. In this thesis we utilize a stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii model to investigate the superfluid properties of a two-dimensional spin-1 Bose gas with ferromagnetic interactions. Owing to the low dimensionality, the superfluidity of this system can not be attributed to the presence of a Bose-Einstein condensate, with thermal fluctuations precluding long-range order. Rather, mass and spin superfluidity emerge via respective Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transitions. Such transitions are characterized by the emergence of quasi-long-range order, driven by the binding of topological defect pairs. First, we consider an easy-plane ferromagnetic gas. We find the system superfluidity may be understood by direct application of existing BKT theory. In particular, mass and spin superfluidity are respectively associated with quasi-long-range order in the global phase and local magnetization. The former arises from the binding of mass vortex pairs, while the latter arises from the binding of polar-core spin vortex pairs. Following this, we introduce axial magnetization, and consider a gas in the broken-axisymmetric phase. We find axial magnetization acts to couple mass and spin superflows via a mechanism analogous to the superfluid drag exhibited by two-component superfluids. This coupling renders invalid the direct applicability of existing BKT theory: here mass and spin superfluidity may each be associated with both phase and magnetic order. We remedy this with a generalization making concrete the relation between superfluidity and quasi-long-range order in this system. In addition, through variations of the quadratic Zeeman energy and axial magnetization we identify three distinct superfluid phases, which serve as finite-temperature generalizations of the polar, broken-axisymmetric, and easy-axis ferromagnetic ground states.