[Seminar] "TOPOLOGICAL DEFECTS, DEFORMED LATTICES AND SPONTANEOUS SYMMETRY BREAKING" by Dr. Vincenzo Vitagliano

Quantum Gravity Unit (Neiman Unit) would like to invite you to a seminar by Dr. Vincenzo Vitagliano from Keio University

Title: "TOPOLOGICAL DEFECTS, DEFORMED LATTICES AND SPONTANEOUS SYMMETRY BREAKING"

Abstract:
External conditions have a dramatic impact on the way dynamical symmetry breaking occurs. I will review some recent (and some less recent) results of symmetry breaking in curved spacetime. Flirting with the contemporary interest toward 2D engineered material, I will then move on potential applications on geometrically deformed lattices. In a curved background, the natural expectation is that curvature works toward the restoration of an internal symmetry. I will show instead that, for topological defects, the competing action of the locally induced curvature and of boundary conditions generated by the non-trivial topology allows configurations where symmetries can be spontaneously broken close to the core.