Inverse Ising inference, hyperuniformity and absorbing states in the Manna model

Using inverse Ising inference we show that the absorbing states of the one-dimensional Manna model can be described by an equilibrium model with an emergent interaction displaying short-ranged repulsion and long-ranged attraction. As the model approaches the critical point the interaction becomes purely repulsive, decaying as $r^{-\alpha}$ and we conjecture the exact value $\alpha=1/2$, suggesting density fluctuations decay as $r^{-3/2}$. We present a simple Gaussian field theory for the long distance behaviour of critical absorbing states and discuss implications for the Manna universality class.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Contact Topology and the Structure and Dynamics of Cholesterics

Using tools and concepts from contact topology we show that non-vanishing twist implies conservation of the layer structure in cholesteric liquid crystals. This leads to a number of additional topological invariants for cholesteric textures, such as layer numbers, that are not captured by traditional descriptions, characterises the nature and size of the chiral energy barriers between metastable configurations, and gives a geometric characterisation of cholesteric dynamics in any context, including active systems, those in confined geometries or under the influence of an external field.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Knotted Defects in Nematic Liquid Crystals

We show that the number of distinct topological states associated to a given knotted defect, $L$, in a nematic liquid crystal is equal to the determinant of the link $L$. We give an interpretation of these states, demonstrate how they may be identified in experiments and describe the consequences for material behaviour and interactions between multiple knots. We show that stable knots can be created in a bulk cholesteric and illustrate the topology by classifying a simulated Hopf link. In addition we give a topological heuristic for the resolution of strand crossings in defect coarsening processes which allows us to distinguish topological classes of a given link and to make predictions about defect crossings in nematic liquid crystals.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Watching, attending, sense-making: spectatorship in immersive theatres

This paper addresses the aesthetic, corporeal and intellectual dimensions of spectatorship in immersive theatre. Immersive work engages audiences at an experiential level and within environments that prompt multisensory engagement and explorative forms of audience participation. Immersive theatre makers, such as De La Guarda, dreamthinkspeak and Punchdrunk, have been making internationally recognised work throughout the twenty-first century. While audience interaction and participation has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention over the past few years, the significance of watching in immersive theatre remains elusive and merits further consideration. Drawing on Immersive Theatres (Machon, 2013) and referencing a full range of practice that is exemplary, this paper describes and defines ‘immersive theatres’ in broad terms. Using Punchdrunk’s The Drowned Man (2014-15) as illustration, it considers the types of experience to be had and the qualities of watching that result in such events. In turn it addresses the type of ‘sense’ individuals can make when they are spectators to their own interactions, attendant to their actions and reactions

Aspects of Defect Topology in Smectic Liquid Crystals

We study the topology of smectic defects in two and three dimensions. We give a topological classification of smectic point defects and disclination lines in three dimensions. In addition we describe the combination rules for smectic point defects in two and three dimensions, showing how the broken translational symmetry of the smectic confers a path dependence on the result of defect addition.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figure

Umbilic Lines in Orientational Order

Three-dimensional orientational order in systems whose ground states possess non-zero, chiral gradients typically exhibits line-like structures or defects: $\lambda$ lines in cholesterics or Skyrmion tubes in ferromagnets for example. Here we show that such lines can be identified as a set of natural geometric singularities in a unit vector field, the generalisation of the umbilic points of a surface. We characterise these lines in terms of the natural vector bundles that the order defines and show that they give a way to localise and identify Skyrmion distortions in chiral materials -- in particular that they supply a natural representative of the Poincar\'{e} dual of the cocycle describing the topology. Their global structure leads to the definition of a self-linking number and helicity integral which relates the linking of umbilic lines to the Hopf invariant of the texture.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure

Giant thermoelectric effects in a proximity-coupled superconductor-ferromagnet device

The usually negligibly small thermoelectric effects in superconducting heterostructures can be boosted dramatically due to the simultaneous effect of spin splitting and spin filtering. Building on an idea of our earlier work [Phys. Rev. Lett. $\textbf{110}$, 047002 (2013)], we propose realistic mesoscopic setups to observe thermoelectric effects in superconductor heterostructures with ferromagnetic interfaces or terminals. We focus on the Seebeck effect being a direct measure of the local thermoelectric response and find that a thermopower of the order of $\sim200$ $\mu V/K$ can be achieved in a transistor-like structure, in which a third terminal allows to drain the thermal current. A measurement of the thermopower can furthermore be used to determine quantitatively the spin-dependent interface parameters that induce the spin splitting. For applications in nanoscale cooling we discuss the figure of merit for which we find enormous values exceeding 1 for temperature $\lesssim 1$K

Violation of non-interacting V\cal V-representability of the exact solutions of the Schr\"odinger equation for a two-electron quantum dot in a homogeneous magnetic field

We have shown by using the exact solutions for the two-electron system in a parabolic confinement and a homogeneous magnetic field [ M.Taut, J Phys.A{\bf 27}, 1045 (1994) ] that both exact densities (charge- and the paramagnetic current density) can be non-interacting $\cal V$-representable (NIVR) only in a few special cases, or equivalently, that an exact Kohn-Sham (KS) system does not always exist. All those states at non-zero $B$ can be NIVR, which are continuously connected to the singlet or triplet ground states at B=0. In more detail, for singlets (total orbital angular momentum $M_L$ is even) both densities can be NIVR if the vorticity of the exact solution vanishes. For $M_L=0$ this is trivially guaranteed because the paramagnetic current density vanishes. The vorticity based on the exact solutions for the higher $|M_L|$ does not vanish, in particular for small r. In the limit $r \to 0$ this can even be shown analytically. For triplets ($M_L$ is odd) and if we assume circular symmetry for the KS system (the same symmetry as the real system) then only the exact states with $|M_L|= 1$ can be NIVR with KS states having angular momenta $m_1=0$ and $|m_2|=1$. Without specification of the symmetry of the KS system the condition for NIVR is that the small-r-exponents of the KS states are 0 and 1.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure