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Superfluid helium films on multiply-connected surfaces: Phase flows and phase transitions

The equilibrium statistical behavior of phase flows on surfaces of complicated topology is studied. Both classical tools developed in the theory of Riemann surfaces and numerical methods associated with discrete mathematics (graph theory) are applied to the characterization of the equilibrium statistical behavior of systems with U(1) symmetry on two-dimensional manifolds. The relation between a surface's topology and physical parameters such as the superfluid density, vortex core shape and boundary effects is investigated. The effect of quantization is traced through the characterization of states via the Hodge decomposition and in the partition function. It is shown that for surfaces of an appropriate shape a new type of Kosterlitz-Thouless transition is possible. This situation is novel because quantized vortices are required only for ergodicity and the disordering of the superfluid/normal phase transition is by fluctuations in the nonsingular harmonic flows.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-8355
Date01 January 1992
CreatorsReinhold, Bruce Bennett
PublisherScholarWorks@UMass Amherst
Source SetsUniversity of Massachusetts, Amherst
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
SourceDoctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest

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