We consider a class of time dependent second order partial differential equations governed by a decaying entropy. The solution usually corresponds to a density distribution, hence positivity (non-negativity) is expected. This class of problems covers important cases such as Fokker-Planck type equations and aggregation models, which have been studied intensively in the past decades. In this paper, we design a high order discontinuous Galerkin method for such problems. If the interaction potential is not involved, or the interaction is defined by a smooth kernel, our semi-discrete scheme admits an entropy inequality on the discrete level. Furthermore, by applying the positivity-preserving limiter, our fully discretized scheme produces non-negative solutions for all cases under a time step constraint. Our method also applies to two dimensional problems on Cartesian meshes. Numerical examples are given to confirm the high order accuracy for smooth test cases and to demonstrate the effectiveness for preserving long time asymptotics.

We propose an exactly solvable lattice Hamiltonian model of topological phases in 3+1 dimensions, based on a generic finite group G and a 4-cocycle ω over G. We show that our model has topologically protected degenerate ground states and obtain the formula of its ground state degeneracy on the 3-torus. In particular, the ground state spectrum implies the existence of purely three-dimensional looplike quasi-excitations specified by two nontrivial flux indices and one charge index. We also construct other nontrivial topological observables of the model, namely the SL(3,Z) generators as the modular S and T matrices of the ground states, which yield a set of topological quantum numbers classified by ω and quantities derived from ω. Our model fulfills a Hamiltonian extension of the 3+1-dimensional Dijkgraaf-Witten topological gauge theory with a gauge group G. This work is presented to be accessible for a wide range of physicists and mathematicians.

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