Renormalized energy between fractional vortices with topologically induced free discontinuities on 2-dimensional Riemannian manifolds

Abstract

On a two-dimensional Riemannian manifold without boundary we consider the variational limit of a family of functionals given by the sum of two terms: a Ginzburg-Landau and a perimeter term. Our scaling allows low-energy states to be described by an order parameter which can have finitely many point singularities (vortex-like defects) of (possibly) fractional-degree connected by line discontinuities (string defects) of finite length. Our main result is a compactness and $\Gamma$-convergence theorem which shows how the coarse grained limit energy depends on the geometry of the manifold in driving the interaction between vortices and string defects.