Ideal interaction dynamics of defects and background fields in condensed matter

Abstract

While defect dynamics in condensed matter systems is widely studied and several methods are available to track the defect position over time, the formulation of dynamical models for the coupled evolution of both defect and background field quantities seems to be more challenging. Yet, the overall behavior of a system containing moving defects is strongly influenced by this defect-field interaction. Here, we propose a modeling framework for the conservative coupled evolution of the defect density and the background fields upon focusing on two relevant cases of study: the Gross-Pitaevskii theory of quantum fluids and the Ericksen-Leslie model of nematic liquid crystals. To achieve the coupled evolution, we combine the Euler-Poincaré variational setting of continuum dynamics with the gauge theory of topological defects. While the latter allows us to overcome certain ambiguities in definition of the defect density, the Euler-Poincaré method provides a unified modeling approach in the absence of defect reconnection.