TOPOLOGICAL PHASE TRANSITIONS AND NEW DEVELOPMENTS

Geometry and topology have been a fascination in physics since the start of the 20th century. A leading example is Einstein's geometrical theory of gravity. At the beginning of the 1970s, topological ideas entered areas of condensed matter physics. These advances were driven by new seminal ideas resolving a serious contradiction between experiment and the standard interpretation of a rigorous mathematical theorem which led to the study of new exotic topological phases of matter. Topological...