Sunday, June 23, 2019

word - Another another Add-A-Gram


This is based on the Add-A-Gram puzzles by wildBillMunson. You need to find a chain of words, such that each next word is an anagram of the previous word plus an additional letter.


Example: a doctor inside a rejection inside an elector; the solution is "vet", "veto", "voter".


Here is the chain for you to solve:



a root inside a symbol inside a division inside a landing inside dullness inside brightness inside a counter inside a liar inside a lie inside commanders inside substitutes inside instruments.


Each one is a single word. That's 12 different words in total. Can you identify them?



Answer



Here we go -



a root — i   ($i=\sqrt{-1}$)
a symbol — pi
a division — rip
a landing — pier
dullness — tripe

brightness — esprit
a counter — riposte
a liar — imposter
a lie — misreport
commanders — imperators
substitutes — temporaries
instruments — polarimeters or vaporimeters



pressure - Explanation for different boiling points of water on different altitudes


I understand water boils at different temperatures depending on altitude.


I am seeking to get an illustrative explanation for this, including a diagram if possible.



Answer



Boiling point of water changes with altitude because atmospheric pressure changes with altitude.


So, how/why boiling point changes with pressure.There is good explanation of this at hyperphysics (with diagrams).



Now, why does pressure change with altitude? Imagine you are swimming in water. Deeper you go more pressure you feel, because there is more water above you.


$P = P_0 + \rho gh$


$P$ - pressure, $P_0$- pressure at the surface, $\rho$ - density of fluid, $g$ - gravity of Earth, $h$ - height/depth to free surface


There is huge column of air above our heads.


$\rightarrow h$ at sea level > $h$ at hill station.


$\rightarrow P$ at sea level > $P$ at hill station.


$\rightarrow$ boiling point at seal level > boiling point at hill station.


solid state physics - Graphene and Klein bottle?


I am trying to understand graphene as a topological insulator.


The spin orbital interaction in graphene is very small (~10mK?). But if we consider that, then graphene should be a topological insulator. And at the edge electrons should move in opposite direction according to their spin as shown in the figure for graphene flake with zigzag edges! enter image description here


Then the map from Brillioun zone to the energy space should be nontrival. The energy space should be topologically equal to a Klein bottle instead of sphere.


Is it the right picture?


update1: Thanks for the comments. Indeed the question is not well defined and I will try to refine it a bit as further as I could.



If you glue the 2D Brillouin zone properly you will get a torus. And as I understood there are two cases shown in figure below that create a gap in the 'bulk' graphene. Case 1 show two valleys without gap. Case 2 is the normal insulator case. Case 3 is the TI case. enter image description here


For the energy space I mean the band structure (I don't know its relation with Hilbert space.) Not sure about how to glue it and if a Klein bottle will be formed.


update2: Just realized that last update without considering the spin. If we do that, then the momentum space should be 2 torus each for one spin instead of one torus.


Then the problem is how to glue (topologically map) the band structure on that.


update3: Just got some ways of mapping 2 tori to a Klein bottle. (shown below, sorry for the bad drawing) enter image description here The cover of the book shows how to map a torus to a sphere.


Is this the way to understand mapping from momentum space to band structure (or topology of the system)?


update4: Well, the next question is how this relates with Berry flux and Chern number. The band structure I mentioned above should be $<\Psi(k)|H|\Psi(k)>$. And here $H$ is proportional to $\nabla_k$. Berry flux ~ $\nabla_k\times <\Psi(k)|\nabla_k|\Psi(k)>$. With it one can calculate the Chern number. Is the right way to link those two pictures? How do this relate with critical points in 2D vector field?


update after 4tnemele's nice answer Thanks for the answer! I must say it is a very nice one.


But may be it is still worth to clear why I asked this question. I am not in the TI field and have no strong background in condensed matter physics, algebra topology, differential geometry etc. Once I read that graphene is a TI. I just cannot see how to construct the calculations of those topological invariants from what I knew at that time.


But I have to start from somewhere and do it in 'my own way'. I intuitively think that the 'energy space' could be a 2D non-orientational close surface. The only thing come into view is a Klein bottle.



I thought it could related with the picture below. If you glue fiber on a torus, you can have no critical point. But it shall be different for the non-orientational surface case (here I call it a Klein bottle.) I thought those fiber could be related with Berry phase. Then I reached the 'energy space', I knew it might be somewhere in between the links. I don't know how to imagine the shape of related Hilbert space. enter image description here


I hoped I can find a very intuitive way of 'seeing' how to construct the calculation. But now I think I need to read a bit more and it may be other easier ways (like begin from equations) to understand the problem. And I think that to clear the background of the question will help other people to answer it. It is a lesson to me.


Thanks a lot.



Answer



I am still not sure what you precisely want to be a Klein Bottle, but let me make some comments that might help you clarify what exactly you want to know. (Warning: I am writing this while being very tired, people are invited to correct me.)


First of all one must be careful to distinguish band structure of the bulk from band structure of a semi-infinite strip (with edges). In your second figure, 1 og 2 are bulk band structures while 3 is band structure of a semi-infinite strip. I think you are mixing these.



  • Bulk picture: Both momentum $k_x$ and $k_y$ are good quantum numbers. Assume you start with a trivial insulator (gap in the band structure, number 2 in your picure) and you continuously change the parameters of your system. As long as the bulk gap i open you have a trivial insulator. Suddenly the bulk gap closes, at one value of your parameters (critical point), and quickly opens up again, now you are in the topological phase BUT the bulk band structure still looks like figure 2 above. How to see the difference in these two phases? One way is looking for edge states.

  • Edge picture: Make the system finite along $y$-direction, so now only $k_x$ is a good quantum number. Now you have alot of bands, depending on how many lattice sites you put along $y$. When you are in the trivial phase the system is still gapped and boring. While you change the system parameters and hit the critical point, the gap of all bands close and then most (but not all) bands open up again (picture 3 above). When one looks at the eigenvectors, one will see that the bands with a gap correspond to bulk states while the band(s) with no gap (with a Dirac point) correspond to states localized along the edge. Furthermore these edge states are robust.



This I mention, in case there were any misunderstanding here. Now to your question, how can one see the connection between band structure, Brillouin zone and topology? The interesting thing is that we only need to analyse the bulk in order to probe the topology of the system, although the interesting physics is along the edge (this is called bulk-edge correspondence in the litterature).


Assume we add a spin-orbit coupling to graphene that preserves $S_z$, meaning that although the spin $SU(2)$ symmetry is not preserved it is still well-defined to speak about spin-up/down (so a $U(1)$ subgroup is still a symmetry). I think that this term will open a gap at the Dirac points at $K$ and $K'$ and the system turns into an insulator. Since $K$ and $K'$ are not important anymore, we have a four-band model (two from spin up/down and two from sub lattice A/B). Since $S_z$ is conserved, the (bulk) Hamiltonian is block diagonal


$ H(\mathbf k) = \begin{pmatrix} H_{\uparrow}(\mathbf k) & \\ & H_{\downarrow}(\mathbf k) \end{pmatrix}$,


where $H_{\uparrow}$/$H_{\downarrow}$ are $2\times 2$ matrices. Since the system preserves time-reversal symmetry, the two Hamiltonians are related by a time-reversal transformation $H_{\downarrow} = \Theta H_{\uparrow}\Theta^{-1}$. Since the Brillouin zone is a torus, we need to classify maps $T^2\rightarrow \mathcal H$, where $\mathcal H$ is the appropriate space of $4\times 4$ matrices obeying some constraints (gapped and time-reversal invariance). For this model, however, we don't need to analyze $\mathcal H$. Since the model is block diagonal we can consider each block separately, any $2\times 2$ matrix can be written in the basis of Pauli matrices


$H_{\alpha}(\mathbf k) = d_0(\mathbf k) \mathbf I + \mathbf d(\mathbf k)\cdot\mathbf{\sigma}$, where $\alpha = \uparrow, \downarrow$ (the dependence of $d_0$ and $\mathbf d$ on $\alpha$ is suppressed for notational simplicity).


Since the spectrum is $E(\mathbf k) = d_0(\mathbf k) + \sqrt{\mathbf d\cdot\mathbf d}$, we can continously deform $d_0$ to zero and deform $\mathbf d\rightarrow \hat{\mathbf d}=\frac{\mathbf d}{|\mathbf d|}$ without closing the gap (and thus still be in the same topological class). Thus we can classify each block of the Hamiltonian, by the map $T^2\rightarrow S^2$, $\mathbf k\rightarrow \hat{\mathbf d}(\mathbf k)$. This is basically classified by the second homotopy group of the 2-sphere $S^2$ (winding number), $\pi_2(S^2) = \mathbb Z$ (well the map is from a torus $T^2$ and not $S^2$, so we need an argument for why we can use the second homotopy group but this I will not delve into right now). The winding number of $\hat{\mathbf d}(\mathbf k)$ is given by the degree of map formula


$C_1^{\alpha} = \frac 1{4\pi}\int_{T^2}d\mathbf k\;\hat{\mathbf d}\cdot\frac{\partial \hat{\mathbf d}}{\partial k_x}\times\frac{\partial \hat{\mathbf d}}{\partial k_y}\in\mathbb Z.$


Thus each block form a Integer Quantum Hall effect separately (see also this answer). Note that $C_1$ is basically the first Chern-number where $\epsilon^{\mu\nu}F_{\mu\nu} = \hat{\mathbf d}\cdot\frac{\partial \hat{\mathbf d}}{\partial k_x}\times\frac{\partial \hat{\mathbf d}}{\partial k_y}$, $F_{\mu\nu} = \partial_{\mu}A_{\nu} - \partial_{\nu}A_{\mu}$ where $A_{\mu}(\mathbf k) = -i\langle\psi(\mathbf k)|\partial_{\mu}\psi(\mathbf k)\rangle$ is the Berry phase for the filled states (to see how to rewrite the Berry phase in terms of $\hat{\mathbf d}$ see this paper. The reason I have avoided the Chern number approach is that, one needs to go into discussing vector (or principal) bundles which just would complicate everything even more).


Now we are almost done. We have found two Chern numbers $C_1^{\downarrow}$ and $C_1^{\uparrow}$, is there a Chern number for the combined system? Since $H_{\downarrow} = \Theta H_{\uparrow}\Theta^{-1}$ are related by time-reversal symmetry, one can show that $C_1^{\uparrow} = -C_1^{\downarrow}$. Thus the sum $C_1^{\uparrow} + C_1^{\downarrow} = 0$, but the difference $C_1^{\uparrow} - C_1^{\downarrow} = 2C_{spin}$ is well defined and sometimes called the spin Chern-number. Thus calculating $C_{spin}\in\mathbb Z$ will tell you if graphene with a spin-orbit coupling is topological or not.


However if one has a perturbation that breaks $S_z$, then our construction breaks down. But it turns out that $C_{spin}$ is still well defined but only modulo 2, $\nu = C_{spin} \text{mod} 2$. This is why people call this a $\mathbb Z_2$-topological insulator, see more details here (pdf-file).



There are of course many other ways of seeing the connection to topology and this is probably the most explicit and elementary way to do it. Is this what you wanted? I suspect that you are interested in the map $T^2\rightarrow\mathcal H$, $\mathbf k\rightarrow H(\mathbf k)$ and when you say "energy space" you mean $\mathcal H$. It turns out that this space is homotopy equivalent to $\mathcal H \approx U(8)/Sp(8)$ (called the symplectic class) by a band-flattening procedure. Sadly I am too tired to see if this is diffeomorphic to the Klein bottle. Is this what you are interested in?


This answer got much longer than originally planned.


rhyme - The Anthropomorphized Riddle


Another that rhymes, my author desired
'Twas limericks and riddles that he so admired
To hide a relation
To earn reputation
and brighten your day through wordplay inspired


A puzzle I am, though not yet begun

Of words I'll speak later, each stanza has one
Their connection concealed
Your mind you must wield
Once gathered, you'll publish my scheme and be done.


Two parts both wound tight
Near my bridge they do meet


When you fancy a bite
Eggs and bacon I heat


Of efforts in vain
My partner's delayed



Things weak under strain
Or a sweet snack homemade


With only a few emerges a pattern
Like Sega and Goya exposed my friend Saturn
These next few you'll find
Are of the same kind
As those layed above left for you to discern


A thing often wasted
Though not touched or seen


A thing often tasted

Or known for its green


A man builds a wall
Without wood or brick


Another might fall
If that wall is too slick


Another that rhymes, my author desired
'Twas limericks and riddles that he so admired
To puzzle and jest
And never to rest
'Til you've been enlightened, an answer acquired



Warning: This puzzle was written in a land where caramel has two syllables, aunt is pronounced "awnt", and words of _ittle rhyme with _iddle.



Answer



The solution is:



Riddle & Rhyme



Based on the fact that:



The first four (non-limerick) stanzas all give words that rhyme with "riddle" and the next four all give words that rhyme with "rhyme".




Specifically the word derived from each stanza is as follows:


Two parts both wound tight / Near my bridge they do meet



Fiddle (from user1618143 - the taught string & body meet at the bridge of the instrument)



When you fancy a bite / Eggs and bacon I heat



Griddle



Of efforts in vain / My partner's delayed




Little (from the idiom "too little, too late", meaning "efforts in vain", with the "partner" of little being late, or "delayed")



Things weak under strain / Or a sweet snack homemade



Brittle (two definitions, since brittle means weak and peanut brittle is a sweet snack)



A thing often wasted / Though not touched or seen



Time




A thing often tasted / Or known for its green



Lime (or arguably thyme)



A man builds a wall / Without wood or brick



Mime ("builds" an imaginary wall to be trapped behind)



Another might fall / If that wall is too slick




Climb(er)



Saturday, June 22, 2019

fluid dynamics - Does steady flow imply laminar?


Most secondary school textbooks, in their chapter about fluid dynamics, seem to suggest that "steady flow" and "laminar flow" are synonyms.


Though I never received any fluid mechanics course when I was at the university, it's pretty obvious to me that flows can be laminar but non-steady. But what about the converse? Can a steady flow be non-laminar?


If I skim through more advanced textbooks and lecture notes, I can't find any direct reference of a strict relation between the two concepts, neither positive nor negative. Yet "between the lines" most of the texts seem to take as a fact that steady implies laminar.


Is that true? Is a steady non-laminar flow something theoretically possible in some context (eg. inviscid flow in a purely continuum-mechanical model of a fluid) but physically unobtainable in any actual fluid? Is the implication blatantly false?


My imagination has apparently no problem at visualizing some sort of weird self-intersecting (and consequently non-laminar?) flow which doesn't vary over time. Am I missing something? I definitely guess that I am.




rotational dynamics - Equilibrium and centripetal acceleration


Why is there still a non zero centripetal acceleration for a particle at equilibrium in uniform circular motion if equilibrium implies total Force = 0?



Answer



A particle in uniform circular motion is not in equilibrium by definition. As you noted there is a non zero centripetal force. For a object to be in equilibrium, the sum of the forces acting on it must be zero (that is the definition of equilibrium).


combinatorics - Draw a line through all doors


I saw the following problem on 4chan and couldn't solve it:


enter image description here


It's very likely to be some kind of troll (no solution).


I'm hoping to see some rigorous proofs that disprove the existence of such a line.




Answer



It is impossible.


Quite the same problem is "Seven Bridges of Königsberg", it was solved (proven) by Euler.




  1. Suppose you have drawn such a line and follow it from one room to another. Since you must use each door you must have a look at each room out of 5. What are these rooms?




  2. There will be 3 (at least) rooms you always go through - if you enter it you always exit it later.
    Indeed, 1 (at most) room you can start at, and another 1 (at most) room you can finish at, but others you must go through: $5-1-1 = 3$.





  3. Since you use each door exactly once, the mentioned 3 rooms must have an even number of doors, since you entry them the same number of times you exit them. But you have only 2 rooms with an even number of doors, the others have 5 doors. So you could not draw such a line.




classical mechanics - Moment of a force about a given axis (Torque) - Scalar or vectorial?

I am studying Statics and saw that: The moment of a force about a given axis (or Torque) is defined by the equation: $M_X = (\vec r \times \...