Microscopic spectral density in random matrix models for chiral and diquark condensation

We examine random matrix models of QCD which are capable of supporting both chiral and diquark condensation. A numerical study of the spectral densities near zero virtuality shows that the introduction of color in the interactions does not alter the one-body results imposed by chiral symmetry. A model with three colors has the spectral density predicted for the chiral ensemble with a Dyson index beta = 2; a pseudoreal model with two colors exhibits the spectral density of the chiral ensemble with beta = 1.Comment: 6 pages, 3 eps figures, uses revtex4 and graphicx. v2 : minor editions, Fig. 3 shows relative deviations rather than absolute. Version to appear in PR

Random matrix model for antiferromagnetism and superconductivity on a two-dimensional lattice

We suggest a new mean field method for studying the thermodynamic competition between magnetic and superconducting phases in a two-dimensional square lattice. A partition function is constructed by writing microscopic interactions that describe the exchange of density and spin-fluctuations. A block structure dictated by spin, time-reversal, and bipartite symmetries is imposed on the single-particle Hamiltonian. The detailed dynamics of the interactions are neglected and replaced by a normal distribution of random matrix elements. The resulting partition function can be calculated exactly. The thermodynamic potential has a structure which depends only on the spectrum of quasiparticles propagating in fixed condensation fields, with coupling constants that can be related directly to the variances of the microscopic processes. The resulting phase diagram reveals a fixed number of phase topologies whose realizations depend on a single coupling-parameter ratio, alpha. Most phase topologies are realized for a broad range of values of alpha and can thus be considered robust with respect to moderate variations in the detailed description of the underlying interactions.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, RevTex 4. Minor grammatical errors corrected in the last versio

Random matrix models for chiral and diquark condensation

We consider random matrix models for the thermodynamic competition between chiral symmetry breaking and diquark condensation in QCD at finite temperature and finite baryon density. The models produce mean field phase diagrams whose topology depends solely on the global symmetries of the theory. We discuss the block structure of the interactions that is imposed by chiral, spin, and color degrees of freedom and comment on the treatment of density and temperature effects. Extension of the coupling parameters to a larger class of theories allows us to investigate the robustness of the phase topology with respect to variations in the dynamics of the interactions. We briefly study the phase structure as a function of coupling parameters and the number of colors.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, proceedings of the workshop "Three Days of Hadronic Physics", Joint Meeting Heidelberg-Liege-Paris-Rostock, 16/12/2004-18/12/2004, Sol Cress, Spa, Belgium. v2: typographical errors corrected in reference

Electric-Magnetic Duality and Topological Insulators

We work out the action of the SL(2,Z) electric-magnetic duality group for an insulator with a non-trivial permittivity, permeability and theta-angle. This theory has recently been proposed to be the correct low-energy effective action for topological insulators. As applications, we give manifestly SL(2,Z) covariant expressions for the Faraday rotation at orthogonal incidence at the interface of two such materials, as well as for the induced magnetic and electric charges, slightly clarifying the meaning of expressions previously derived in the literature. We also use electric-magnetic duality to find a gravitational dual for a strongly coupled version of this theory using the AdS/CFT correspondence.Comment: 4 pages; version accepted by PR

Finding the Pion in the Chiral Random Matrix Vacuum

The existence of a Goldstone boson is demonstrated in chiral random matrix theory. After determining the effective coupling and calculating the scalar and pseudoscalar propagators, a random phase approximation summation reveals the massless pion and massive sigma modes expected whenever chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, revte

Vortices in Bose-Einstein condensates with anharmonic confinement

We examine an effectively repulsive Bose-Einstein condensate of atoms, that rotates in a quadratic-plus-quartic trapping potential. We investigate the phase diagram of the system as a function of the angular frequency of rotation and of the coupling constant, demonstrating that there are phase transitions between multiply- and singly-quantized vortex states. The derived phase diagram is shown to be universal and exact in the limits of small anharmonicity and weak coupling constant.Comment: 4 pages, 2 ps figures, RevTe

Propagation of exciton pulses in semiconductors

Using a toy model, we examine the propagation of excitons in Cu$_2$O, which form localized pulses under certain experimental conditions. The formation of these waves is attributed to the effect of dispersion, non-linearity and the coupling of the excitons to phonons, which acts as a dissipative mechanism.Comment: 5 pages, 4 ps figures, RevTe

A simple variational principle for classical spinning particle with anomalous magnetic momentum

We obtain Bargmann-Michel-Telegdi equations of motion of classical spinning particle using Lagrangian variational principle with Grassmann variables.Comment: 3 pages, late