title: Topological solitons in helical strings.
abstract: The low-energy physics of (quasi)degenerate one-dimensional systems is typically understood as the particle-like dynamics of kinks between stable, ordered structures. Such dynamics, we show, becomes highly nontrivial when the ground states are topologically constrained: a dynamics of the domains rather than on the domains which the kinks separate. Motivated by recently reported observations of charged polymers physio-adsorbed on nanotubes, we study kinks between helical structures of a string wrapping around a cylinder. While their motion cannot be disentangled from domain dynamics, and energy and momentum is not concentrated in the solitons, the dynamics of the domains can be folded back into a particle-like description of the local excitations.
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Division and Institute for Material Sciences, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
authors.forename: Cristiano
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nisoli
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Division and Institute for Material Sciences, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.|Nordita, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Alexander V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Balatsky