Three Easy Pieces (in Tribute to Roman Jackiw)

Abstract

Roman Jackiw has made highly original and influential contributions to several areas of physics that have grown and blossomed, notably including the quantum physics of domain walls, magnetic monopoles, and fractional quantum numbers. Here I offer three small pieces that take off from those themes. I discuss the emergence of topological surface structure in materials, the emergence of a shape-space magnetic monopole in a simple mechanical system, and the emergence of fractional angular momentum in an even simpler quantum mechanical (molecular) system.