Researchers from Chinese and Singaporean institutions have found that a tipping point, where a physical system rapidly changes state, can carry a smooth mathematical structure resembling the hole in a doughnut, the South China Morning Post reports.
Physicists have long treated critical phenomena, which describe how systems behave at such thresholds, and topology, the study of shape properties that survive stretching and bending, as separate fields. A sphere and a doughnut are the classic example of topologically different shapes, because one has a hole and the other does not.
The study was published in the journal Nature on 7 October, with Cheng Zheyu and Zhang Xiuhai of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore as joint first authors. The Post says the work could open new avenues for fundamental physics research.
Source: South China Morning Post