Nonabelian Ginzburg-Landau theory for ferroelectrics

J Phys Condens Matter. 2023 Feb 21;35(15). doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/acb89d.

Abstract

The Ginzburg-Landau theory, which was introduced to phenomenologically describe the destruction of superconductivity by a magnetic field at the beginning, has brought up much more knowledge beyond the original one as a mean-field theory of thermodynamics states. There the complex order parameter plays an important role. Here we propose a macroscopic theory to describe the features of ferroelectrics by a two-component complex order parameter coupled to nonabelian gauge potentials that provide more freedom to reflect interplays between different measurables. Within this theoretical framework, some recently discovered empirical static and time-independent phenomena, such as vortex, anti-vortex, spiral orders can be obtained as solutions for different gauge potentials. It is expected to bring in a new angle of view with more elucidation than the traditional one that takes the polarization as order parameter.

Keywords: Gingzburg–Landau theory; electric polarization; ferroelectrics; free energy; nonableian gauge field; spiral order; vortex order.