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Instabilities and Solitons in Minimal Strips.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Machon, Thomas 
Alexander, Gareth P 
Goldstein, Raymond E 
Pesci, Adriana I 

Abstract

We show that highly twisted minimal strips can undergo a nonsingular transition, unlike the singular transitions seen in the Möbius strip and the catenoid. If the strip is nonorientable, this transition is topologically frustrated, and the resulting surface contains a helicoidal defect. Through a controlled analytic approximation, the system can be mapped onto a scalar ϕ^{4} theory on a nonorientable line bundle over the circle, where the defect becomes a topologically protected kink soliton or domain wall, thus establishing their existence in minimal surfaces. Demonstrations with soap films confirm these results and show how the position of the defect can be controlled through boundary deformation.

Description

Keywords

cond-mat.soft, cond-mat.soft

Journal Title

Phys Rev Lett

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0031-9007
1079-7114

Volume Title

117

Publisher

American Physical Society (APS)
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/M017982/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/I036060/1)
This work was supported in part by the UK EPSRC through Grant No. A.MACX.0002 (TM and GPA) and an EPSRC Established Career Fellowship (R. E. G. and A. I. P.). TM also supported by a University of Warwick Chancellor’s International Scholarship and by a University of Warwick IAS Early Career Fellowship.