RESUMEN
One-dimensional strings of local excitations are a fascinating feature of the physical behavior of strongly correlated topological quantum matter. Here we study strings of local excitations in a classical system of interacting nanomagnets, the Santa Fe Ice geometry of artificial spin ice. We measured the moment configuration of the nanomagnets, both after annealing near the ferromagnetic Curie point and in a thermally dynamic state. While the Santa Fe Ice lattice structure is complex, we demonstrate that its disordered magnetic state is naturally described within a framework of emergent strings. We show experimentally that the string length follows a simple Boltzmann distribution with an energy scale that is associated with the system's magnetic interactions and is consistent with theoretical predictions. The results demonstrate that string descriptions and associated topological characteristics are not unique to quantum models but can also provide a simplifying description of complex classical systems with non-trivial frustration.
RESUMEN
We propose the first skyrmion spin ice, realized via confined, interacting liquid crystal skyrmions. Skyrmions in a chiral nematic liquid crystal behave as quasiparticles that can be dynamically confined, bound, and created or annihilated individually with ease and precision. We show that these quasiparticles can be employed to realize binary variables that interact to form ice-rule states. Because of their unique versatility, liquid crystal skyrmions can open entirely novel avenues in the field of frustrated systems. More broadly, our findings also demonstrate the viability of liquid crystal skyrmions as elementary degrees of freedom in the design of collective complex behaviors.
RESUMEN
When chiral liquid crystals or magnets are subjected to applied fields or other anisotropic environments, the competition between favored twist and anisotropy leads to the formation of complex defect structures. In some cases, the defects are skyrmions, which have 180^{∘} double twist going outward from the center, and hence can pack together without singularities in the orientational order. In other cases, the defects are merons, which have 90^{∘} double twist going outward from the center; packing such merons requires singularities in the orientational order. In the liquid crystal context, a lattice of merons is equivalent to a blue phase. Here we perform theoretical and computational studies of skyrmions and merons in chiral liquid crystals and magnets. Through these studies, we calculate the phase diagrams for liquid crystals and magnets in terms of dimensionless ratios of energetic parameters. We also predict the range of metastability for liquid crystal skyrmions and show that these skyrmions can move and interact as effective particles. The results show how the properties of skyrmions and merons depend on the vector or tensor nature of the order parameter.
RESUMEN
Unlike equilibrium systems, active matter is not governed by the conventional laws of thermodynamics. Through a series of analytic calculations and Langevin dynamics simulations, we explore how systems cross over from equilibrium to active behavior as the activity is increased. In particular, we calculate the profiles of density and orientational order near straight or circular walls and show the characteristic width of the boundary layers. We find a simple relationship between the enhancements of density and pressure near a wall. Based on these results, we determine how the pressure depends on wall curvature and hence make approximate analytic predictions for the motion of curved tracers, as well as the rectification of active particles around small openings in confined geometries.
RESUMEN
When liquid crystal elastomers are prepared without any alignment, disordered polydomain structures emerge as the materials are cooled into the nematic phase. These polydomain structures are often attributed to quenched disorder in the cross-linked polymer network. As an alternative explanation, we develop a theory for the dynamics of the isotropic-nematic transition in liquid crystal elastomers, and show that the dynamics can induce a polydomain structure with a characteristic length scale, through a mechanism analogous to the Cahn-Hilliard equation for phase separation.
