Quantcast
  • Register
PhysicsOverflow is a next-generation academic platform for physicists and astronomers, including a community peer review system and a postgraduate-level discussion forum analogous to MathOverflow.

Welcome to PhysicsOverflow! PhysicsOverflow is an open platform for community peer review and graduate-level Physics discussion.

Please help promote PhysicsOverflow ads elsewhere if you like it.

News

PO is now at the Physics Department of Bielefeld University!

New printer friendly PO pages!

Migration to Bielefeld University was successful!

Please vote for this year's PhysicsOverflow ads!

Please do help out in categorising submissions. Submit a paper to PhysicsOverflow!

... see more

Tools for paper authors

Submit paper
Claim Paper Authorship

Tools for SE users

Search User
Reclaim SE Account
Request Account Merger
Nativise imported posts
Claim post (deleted users)
Import SE post

Users whose questions have been imported from Physics Stack Exchange, Theoretical Physics Stack Exchange, or any other Stack Exchange site are kindly requested to reclaim their account and not to register as a new user.

Public \(\beta\) tools

Report a bug with a feature
Request a new functionality
404 page design
Send feedback

Attributions

(propose a free ad)

Site Statistics

205 submissions , 163 unreviewed
5,054 questions , 2,207 unanswered
5,345 answers , 22,720 comments
1,470 users with positive rep
818 active unimported users
More ...

  Duality between (1) bosons (superfluid-insulator) and (2) a bulk superconductor in a magnetic field

+ 6 like - 0 dislike
1217 views

In this paper, http://journals.aps.org/prb/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevB.39.2756, the authors establish a correspondence between two-dimensional bosons and a bulk superconductor in a magnetic field. They focus on boson, but it seems to be claimed that it holds even more generally.


(1) 2D bosons (T=0)              v.s.      (2) Bulk superconductor


 Chemical potential $\mu$        v.s.   Applied field $H$

Bose density $n$     v.s         Total field $B$

Mott insulating phase    v.s.   Meissner phase

Density wave insulator   v.s.  Abrikosov flux lattice

Superfluid    v.s.    Non-superconducting flux line liquid

Supersolid    v.s.    Non-superconducting flux lattice

Bose glass insulator   v.s. superconducting glass


Question 1: Is that "Total field $B$" a typo of magnetization $M$? Since we have:

$$\mu \cdot n \Longleftrightarrow H \cdot M$$

or

$$\mu \cdot n \Longleftrightarrow B \cdot M$$

Question 2: Any physical intuitive picture how does this duality in this table above work?

Here is my understanding -- For example, we can derive them by representing the two equivalent theories of superfluid with superfluid U(1) phase field $\phi$ in terms of a dual equivalent theory of vortex field $\Phi$ (creating vortex or annihilate anti-vortex). Naturally, we will introduce terms like

$$ |d \phi - A|^2 + \dots \Longleftrightarrow A \wedge d a +\dots = A  \wedge J_{\text{charge}} +\dots \Longleftrightarrow |d \Phi- a \Phi |^2 + A \wedge d a + \dots$$

I suppose if I introduce the Maxwell term (introducing Coulomb repulsion) $dA  \wedge * dA $ with $A \wedge d a$, I can integrate out $A$ to obtain an effective Messiner effect $m^2 A^2 $.

More systematically, there are some hints of dualities between (see A Zee's QFT book chap VI.3) (with the help of an extra $A \wedge d a$ term, and integrating out unwanted degree of freedom.): 

$$ \text{Maxwell}: da \wedge *da  \Longleftrightarrow \text{Meissner}: m^2 A^2  $$

$$ \text{Meissner}: M^2  a^2  \Longleftrightarrow \text{Maxwell}: dA  \wedge * dA $$

$$ \text{Chern-Simons}: a \wedge da  \Longleftrightarrow \text{Chern-Simons}: A  \wedge dA $$

Maxwell term (introducing Coulomb repulsion) can cause the Mott-insulating phase, and we have argue it is dual to an effective Messiner effect.

So far we obtain: 

$$\text{Mott insulating phase    v.s.   Meissner phase}$$

Again, 

Question 2: Any physical intuitive picture how this (rest of) duality in this table above work? Physically intuitively?

asked Jan 4, 2015 in Theoretical Physics by wonderich (1,500 points) [ revision history ]
edited Jan 4, 2015 by wonderich

Your answer

Please use answers only to (at least partly) answer questions. To comment, discuss, or ask for clarification, leave a comment instead.
To mask links under text, please type your text, highlight it, and click the "link" button. You can then enter your link URL.
Please consult the FAQ for as to how to format your post.
This is the answer box; if you want to write a comment instead, please use the 'add comment' button.
Live preview (may slow down editor)   Preview
Your name to display (optional):
Privacy: Your email address will only be used for sending these notifications.
Anti-spam verification:
If you are a human please identify the position of the character covered by the symbol $\varnothing$ in the following word:
p$\hbar$ysicsOverflo$\varnothing$
Then drag the red bullet below over the corresponding character of our banner. When you drop it there, the bullet changes to green (on slow internet connections after a few seconds).
Please complete the anti-spam verification




user contributions licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required

Your rights
...