Related papers: More is Different: Multi-Axion Dynamics Changes To…
Topological defects are singularities in material fields that play a vital role across a range of systems: from cosmic microwave background polarization to superconductors, and biological materials. Although topological defects and their…
The post-inflationary Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry breaking scenario provides a unique opportunity to pinpoint the QCD axion dark matter mass, which is a crucial input for laboratory experiments that are designed for probing specific mass…
Cosmological inflation and topological defects have been considered for a long time, either in disagreement or in competition. On the one hand an inflationary era is required to solve the shortcomings of the hot big bang model, while on the…
Structure formation with topological defects is described. The main differences from inflationary models are highlighted. The results are compared with recent observations. It is concluded that all the defect models studied so far are in…
We study the evolution of biased domain walls in the early universe. We explicitly discuss the roles played by the surface tension and volume pressure in the evolution of the walls, and quantify their effects by looking at the collapse of…
We propose a model for the growth of weighted networks that couples the establishment of new edges and vertices and the weights' dynamical evolution. The model is based on a simple weight-driven dynamics and generates networks exhibiting…
We demonstrate that the true QCD axion that solves the strong CP problem can be found in all generality outside the customary standard QCD band, with QCD being the sole source of Peccei-Quinn breaking. The essential reason is that the basis…
We extend and develop our previous work on the evolution of a network of cosmic strings. The new treatment is based on an analysis of the probability distribution of the end-to-end distance of a randomly chosen segment of left-moving string…
Axion-like particles (ALPs) are often considered as good candidates for dark matter. Several mechanisms generating relic abundance of ALP dark matter have been proposed. They may involve processes which take place before, during or after…
Doppler peaks in the cosmic microwave background may allow us to distinguish among the two classes of theories-inflationary models and topological defect scenarios-which attempt to explain the origin of structure formation in the universe.…
Dimensional evolution between one- ($1D$) and two-dimensional ($2D$) topological phases is investigated systematically. The crossover from a $2D$ topological insulator to its $1D$ limit shows oscillating behavior between a $1D$ ordinary…
Topological phases in two dimensions support anyonic quasiparticle excitations that obey neither bosonic nor fermionic statistics. These anyon structures often carry global symmetries that relate distinct anyons with similar fusion and…
The evolution of cosmic perturbations in a two-component ultralight axionic universe is investigated. We present the first spectral computation of perturbations in multi-component universes. A particular case composed of light extreme…
Topological defects can be formed during inflation by phase transitions as well as by quantum nucleation. We study the effect of the expansion of the Universe on the internal structure of the defects. We look for stationary solutions to the…
Cosmic strings are topological defects arising in a variety of cosmological scenarios, as the Universe undergoes symmetry-breaking phase transitions, whose discovery would offer valuable insight into the high-energy physics that shaped the…
Similarities between the gauge meditation of supersymmetry breaking and the QCD axion model suggest that they originate from the same dynamics. We present a class of models where supersymmetry and the Peccei-Quinn symmetry are…
We investigate the axion quality problem in warped extra-dimensional models in which the QCD axion arises as the Wilson-line mode of a five-dimensional $U(1)$ gauge field compactified on an $S^1/\mathbb{Z}_2$ orbifold. Higher-dimensional…
We extend and generalize the seminal work of Brandenberger, Huang and Zhang on the formation of strings during chiral phase transitions(berger) and discuss the formation of abelian and non-abelian topological strings during such transitions…
We consider the evolution of domain walls produced during an anisotropic phase in the very early universe, showing that the resulting network can be very anisotropic. If the domain walls are produced during an inflationary era, the network…
The main features of the recently found classically stable quasi-topological membranes and strings in generic, topologically trivial and weakly coupled two-Higgs extensions of the standard model are briefly reviewed. A variety of localized…