In this paper we study segmented strings in AdS3 coupled to a background two-form whose field strength is proportional to the volume form. By changing the coupling, the theory interpolates between the Nambu-Goto string and the SL(2) Wess-Zumino-Witten model. In terms of the kink momentum vectors, the action is independent of the coupling and the classical theory reduces to a single discrete-time Toda-type theory. The WZW model is a singular point in coupling space where the map into Toda variables degenerates.

In this paper, we study the relation between topological orders and their gapped boundaries. We propose that the bulk for a given gapped boundary theory is unique. It is actually a consequence of a microscopic definition of a local topological order, which is a (potentially anomalous) topological order defined on an open disk. Using this uniqueness, we show that the notion of “bulk” is equivalent to the notion of center in mathematics. We achieve this by first introducing the notion of a morphism between two local topological orders of the same dimension, then proving that the bulk satisfying the same universal property as that of the center in mathematics. We propose a classification (formulated as a macroscopic definition of n+1D local topological orders by unitary multi-fusion n-categories, and explain that the notion of a morphism between two local topological orders is compatible with that of a unitary monoidal n-functor in a few low dimensional cases. We also explain in some low dimensional cases that this classification is compatible with the result of “bulk = center”. In the end, we explain that above boundary-bulk relation is only the first layer of a hierarchical structure which can be summarized by the functoriality of the bulk (or center). This functoriality also provides the physical meanings of some well-known mathematical results on fusion 1-categories. This work can also be viewed as the first step towards a systematic study of the category of local topological orders, and the boundary-bulk relation actually provides a useful tool for this study.

Although random cell complexes occur throughout the physical sciences, there does not appear to be a standard way to quantify their statistical similarities and differences. The various proposals in the literature are usually motivated by the analysis of particular physical systems and do not necessarily apply to general situations. The central concepts in this paper—the swatch and the cloth—provide a description of the local topology of a cell complex that is general (any physical system that can be represented as a cell complex is admissible) and complete (any statistical question about the local topology can be answered from the cloth). Furthermore, this approach allows a distance to be defined that measures the similarity of the local topology of two cell complexes. The distance is used to identify a steady state of a model grain boundary network, quantify the approach to this steady state, and show that the steady state is independent of the initial conditions. The same distance is then employed to show that the long-term properties in simulations of a specific model of a dislocation network do not depend on the implementation of dislocation intersections.

In the context of two illustrative examples from supersymmetric quantum mechanics we show that the semiclassical analysis of the path integral requires complexification of the configuration space and action, and the inclusion of complex saddle points, even when the parameters in the action are real. We find new exact complex saddles, and show that without their contribution the semi-classical expansion is in conflict with basic properties such as positive-semidefiniteness of the spectrum, and constraints of supersymmetry. Generic saddles are not only complex, but also possibly multi-valued, and even singular. This is in contrast to instanton solutions, which are real, smooth, and single-valued. The multi-valuedness of the action can be interpreted as a hidden topological angle, quantized in units of π in supersymmetric theories. The general ideas also apply to non-supersymmetric theories.

We consider a discrete, non-Hermitian random matrix model, which can be expressed as a shift of a rank-one perturbation of an anti-symmetric matrix. We show that, asymptotically almost surely, the real parts of the eigenvalues of the non-Hermitian matrix around any fixed index are interlaced with those of the anti-symmetric matrix. Along the way, we show that some tools recently developed to study the eigenvalue distributions of Hermitian matrices extend to the anti-symmetric setting.