Topological Defects and Phase Transitions: John Kosterlitz

J. Michael Kosterlitz (Dept. Physics, Brown University) presents at the Fred Kavli Special Symposium on Quantum Matter & Quantum Information at the APS March Meeting 2017 in New Orleans, LA. View abstract below.
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Topological Defects and Phase Transitions
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This talk reviews some of the applications of topology and topological defects in phase transitions in two dimensional systems for which Kosterlitz and Thouless split half the 2016 Physics Nobel Prize. The theoretical predictions and experimental verification in two dimensional superfluids, superconductors and crystals will be reviewed because they provide very convincing quantitative agreement with topological defect theories.