| What becomes of vortices when they grow giant? |
| Alexander Penin, University of Albert |
| Event Type: HEP Seminar |
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| Time: 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM |
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| Location: 726 Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar |
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| Abstract: Quantum vortices are two-dimensional solitons which carry a topological charge - the first Chern number n. They play a crucial role in many physical concepts from cosmic strings to mirror symmetry and dualities of supersymmetric models. When n grows the vortices become giant. The giant vortices are observed experimentally in a variety of quantum condensed matter systems from mesoscopic superconductors to Bose-Einstein condensate of cold atoms. Thus, it is quite appealing to identify their characteristic features and universal properties, which is quite a challenging mathematical problem. Though the nonlinear vortex equations may look deceptively simple, their analytic solution is not available. In this talk I demonstrate how by borrowing the asymptotic methods of fluid dynamics such a solution can be found in the large-n limit. I then construct a systematic expansion in inverse powers of the topological charge about this asymptotic solution which works amazingly well all the way down to the elementary vortex with n=1. |