Higher order topological invariants from the Chern-Simons action

Tangled Magnetic Fields in Astro- and Plasma Physics; Quantised Flux in Tightly Knotted and Linked Systems

Buniy, Roman V.^1 ; Kephart, Thomas W.^2

Schmid College of Science, Chapman University, Orange

CA

92866, United States^1

Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville

TN

37235, United States^2

关键词: Closed curve;    Expectation values;    Field theory;    Gaussians;    Higher-order;    Topological invariants;    Wilson line;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/544/1/012014/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/544/1/012014

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

It is well known that for a field theory with Chern-Simons action, expectation values of Wilson line operators are topological invariants. The standard result is expressed in terms of the Gaussian linkings of closed curves defining the operators. We show how a judicious choice of Wilson lines leads to higher order topological linkings.