论文标题
拓扑缺陷简介：从液晶到颗粒物理
Introduction to topological defects: from liquid crystals to particle physics
论文作者
论文摘要
液晶是棒状分子的组件，它们会自组织形成中间液体，在普通液体和各向异性晶体之间。在每个点，分子沿特权方向集体定位，这在本地定义了定向顺序。有时，该顺序被打破，奇异性以拓扑缺陷的形式出现。这本教程文章专门用于这些缺陷的几何形状，拓扑和物理学。我们介绍了用于描述列中阶段的主要模型，并讨论各向同性 - 纽维型相变。然后，我们介绍了nematics中不同的缺陷家族，并检查了他们的一些身体结果。最后，我们表明拓扑缺陷是自然的普遍模式，不仅出现在软物质中，而且出现在生物学，宇宙学，地质学甚至粒子物理学中。
Liquid crystals are assemblies of rod-like molecules which self-organize to form mesophases, in-between ordinary liquids and anisotropic crystals. At each point, the molecules collectively orient themselves along a privileged direction, which locally defines an orientational order. Sometimes, this order is broken and singularities appear in the form of topological defects. This tutorial article is dedicated to the geometry, topology and physics of these defects. We introduce the main models used to describe the nematic phase and discuss the isotropic-nematic phase transition. Then, we present the different families of defects in nematics and examine some of their physical outcomes. Finally, we show that topological defects are universal patterns of nature, appearing not only in soft matter, but also in biology, cosmology, geology and even particle physics.
