CP1 spinor representation 2026-09-28
The CP1 spinor representation writes a unit vector as with . The phase redundancy identifies normalized spinors that represent the same point of the two-sphere.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 337 2 a Solution 2026-09-28
A ferromagnetic vacuum breaks the special unitary group to the subgroup of rotations about its magnetization, so its vacuum manifold is the two-sphere . The massless field is therefore a unit vector with .
The only rotational scalar linear in that can be formed directly from is . A local one-form can describe the required Berry phase, but no choice of is globally nonsingular and strictly rotationally invariant on . One therefore needs coordinate patches, an extension, or a redundant spinor parametrization.