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Abstract. In this paper we investigate the properties of nodal structures in random wave fields, and in particular we scrutinize their recently proposed connection with short-range percolation models.We propose a measure which shows the difference between monochromatic random waves, which are characterized by long-range correlations, and Gaussian fields with short-range correlations, which are naturally assumed to be better modelled by percolation theory. We also study the relevance of the quantities which we compute to the probability that nodal lines are in the vicinity of a given reference line.

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We calculate correlation functions of the (signed) density of zeros of Gaussian distributed vector fields. We are able to express correlation functions of arbitrary order through the curvature tensor of a certain abstract Riemann Cartan or Riemannian manifold. As an application, we discuss one and twopoint functions. The zeros of a two-dimensional Gaussian vector field model the distribution of topological defects in the high temperature phase of twodimensional systems with orientational degrees of freedom, such as superfluid films, thin superconductors and liquid crystals.

Abstract. We consider the signed density of the extremal points of (twodimensional) scalar fields with a Gaussian distribution. We assign a positive unit charge to the maxima and minima of the function and a negative one to its saddles. At first, we compute the average density for a field in half-space with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Then we calculate the charge-charge correlation function (without boundary). We apply the general results to random waves and random surfaces. Furthermore, we find a generating functional for the two-point function. Its Legendre transform is the integral over the scalar curvature of a four-dimensional Riemannian manifold.

Abstract.The profile of a critical hole in an undercooled wetting layer is determined by the saddle-point equation of a standard interface Hamiltonian supported by convenient boundary conditions. It is shown that this saddle-point equation can be mapped onto an autonomous dynamical system in a three-dimensional phase space. The corresponding flux has a polynomial form and in general displays four fixed points, each with different stability properties. On the basis of this picture we derive the thermodynamic behaviour of critical holes in three different nucleation regimes of the phase diagram.

We study orientational order, subject to thermal fluctuations, on a fixed curved surface. We derive, in particular, the average density of zeros of Gaussian distributed vector fields on a closed Riemannian manifold. Results are compared with the density of disclination charges obtained from a Coulomb gas model. Our model describes the disordered state of two dimensional objects with orientational degrees of freedom, such as vector ordering in Langmuir monolayers and lipid bilayers above the hexatic to fluid transition.