2020/06/08 by Pierre Delplace, Delplace, Pierre, Antoine Venaille +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #Geophysics (physics.geo-ph) #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Topological Materials and Phenomena
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2006.08488
openalex publication_date 2020/06/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The physics of topological insulators makes it possible to understand and\npredict the existence of unidirectional waves trapped along an edge or an\ninterface. In this review, we describe how these ideas can be adapted to\ngeophysical and astrophysical waves. We deal in particular with the case of\nplanetary equatorial waves, which highlights the key interplay between rotation\nand sphericity of the planet, to explain the emergence of waves which propagate\ntheir energy only towards the East. These minimal ingredients are precisely\nthose put forward in the geometric interpretation of the Foucault pendulum. We\ndiscuss this classic example of mechanics to introduce the concepts of holonomy\nand vector bundle which we then use to calculate the topological properties of\nequatorial shallow water waves.\n