"Tattered" membrane

Abstract

Ideal crystalline membranes, realized by graphene and other atomic monolayers, exhibit rich physics - a universal anomalous elasticity of the critical "flat" phase characterized by a negative Poisson ratio, universally singular elastic moduli, order-from-disorder and a crumpling transition. We formulate a generalized $D$-dimensional field theory, parameterized by an $O(d)\times O(D)$ tensor field with an {\it energetic} longitudinal constraint. For a soft constraint the resulting field theory describes a new class of a fluctuating "tattered" membranes, exhibiting a nonzero density of topological connectivity defects - slits, cracks and faults at an effective medium level. For hard, infinite-coupling constraint, the model reproduces the conventional crystalline membrane and its crumpling transition, and thereby demonstrates the essence of the difference between an elastic membrane and conventional field theories. Two additional fixed points emerge within the critical manifold, (i) globally attractive, "isotropic" $O(d)\times O(D)$, and (ii) "transverse", which in $D=2$ is the exact "dual" of the elastic membrane. Their properties are obtained in general $D,d$ from the renormalization group and the self-consistent screening analyses.