Topmusicanswers
Phases of matter, such as crystals, magnets, and conventional superconductors, as well as simple phase transitions can be described by spontaneous symmetry breaking. Notable exceptions include topological phases of matter like the fractional quantum Hall effect.
- What are examples of broken symmetry in life?
- Why is symmetry breaking important?
- Can time symmetry be broken?
- What symmetry breaks in Higgs mechanism?
What are examples of broken symmetry in life?
For example, water looks the same in all directions, but when it changes and becomes a snowflake, it becomes more complex. A snowflake crystal looks the same in only six directions. This is an example of symmetry breaking.
Why is symmetry breaking important?
Symmetry breaking is an important process in both biological evolution and the evolution of the universe as it moves in time through different eras. Wherever structure becomes more complex, symmetry, or at least the original symmetry, is lost.
Can time symmetry be broken?
These symmetries can be broken and explain diverse phenomena such as crystals, superconductivity, and the Higgs mechanism. However, it was thought until very recently that time translation symmetry could not be broken. Time crystals, a state of matter first observed in 2017, break time translation symmetry.
What symmetry breaks in Higgs mechanism?
The Higgs mechanism is often presented as spontaneous breaking of a local gauge symmetry. But a local gauge symmetry is rooted in redundancy of description: gauge transformations connect states that cannot be physically distinguished.
