Topology-controlled Potts coarsening.

We uncover unusual topological features in the long-time relaxation of the q-state kinetic Potts ferromagnet on the triangular lattice that is instantaneously quenched to zero temperature from a zero-magnetization initial state. For q = 3, the final state is either the ground state (frequency approximate to 0.75) a frozen three-hexagon state (frequency approximate to 0.16), a two-stripe state (frequency approximate to 0.09), a three-stripe state (frequency <2 x 10(-4)). Other final state topologies, such as states with more than three hexagons, occur with probability 10(-5) or smaller, for q = 3. The relaxation to the frozen three-hexagon state is governed by a time that scales as L-2 In L. We provide a heuristic argument for this anomalous scaling and present additional new features of Potts coarsening on the triangular lattice for q = 3 and for q > 3.