Fractal thermodynamics and ninionic statistics of coherent rotational states: realization via imaginary angular rotation in imaginary time formalism

Abstract: We suggest the existence of systems in which the statistics of a particle changes with the quantum level it occupies. The occupation numbers in thermal equilibrium depend on a continuous statistical parameter that interpolates between bosonic or fermionic and ghost-like statistical distributions. We call such particle states ``ninions'': they are different from anyons and can exist in 3+1 dimensions. We suggest that ninions can be associated with coherent angular momentum states. In the Euclidean imaginary-time formalism, the ninionic statistics can be implemented via the rotwisted boundary conditions, which are associated with the rigid global rotation of the system with an imaginary angular frequency. The imaginary rotation is characterized by a PT-symmetric non-Hermitian Hamiltonian and possesses a well-defined thermodynamic limit. The physics of ninions in thermal equilibrium is accessible for numerical simulations on Euclidean lattices. We provide a no-go theorem on the absence of analytical continuation between real and imaginary rotations in the thermodynamic limit. The ground state of ninions shares similarity with the $\theta$-vacuum in QCD. The ninions can produce negative pressure and energy, similar to the Casimir effect and the cosmological dark energy. In the thermodynamic limit, the dependence of thermal energy of free ninions on the statistical parameter is a fractal.