Related papers: Dynamical Prevention of Topological Defect Formati…
Topological defects are ubiquitous in physics. Whenever a symmetry breaking phase transition occurs, topological defects may form. The best known examples are vortex lines in type II super conductors or in liquid Helium, and declination…
We consider the formation of topological defects after inflation. In order to take into account the effects of the rescattering of fluctuations, we integrate the classical equation that describes the evolution of a complex scalar field on…
We study the dynamics of a scalar field \Phi with the potential g(|\Phi|^2-\eta^2)^2/2 (g=self-coupling constant, \eta=symmetry breaking scale) after inflation and make clear whether topological defects can ever be formed during preheating.…
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…
Topological defects are common in many everyday systems. In general, they appear if a symmetry is broken at a rapid phase transition. In this article, I explain why it is believed that they should have also been formed in the early universe…
Many particle physics models of matter admit solutions corresponding to stable or long-lived topological defects. In the context of standard cosmology it is then unavoidable that such defects will form during phase transitions in the very…
We describe a novel phenomenon in which vortices are produced due to resonant oscillations of a scalar field which is driven by a periodically varying temperature T, with T remaining much below the critical temperature $T_c$. Also, in a…
Topological defects are produced during phase transitions in the very early Universe. They arise in most unified theories of strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions. These lectures focus on the role of topological defects in…
We demonstrate a novel mechanism for the formation of topological defects in a first order phase transition for theories in the presence of small explicit symmetry breaking terms. We carry out numerical simulations of collisions of two…
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…
We study the nonequilibrium dynamics leading to the formation of topological defects in a symmetry-breaking phase transition of a quantum scalar field with \lambda\Phi^4 self-interaction in a spatially flat, radiation-dominated…
Many models of supersymmetry breaking, in the context of either supergravity or superstring theories, predict the presence of particles with weak scale masses and Planck-suppressed couplings. Typical examples are the scalar moduli and the…
We study in detail the dynamics of a scalar field in thermal bath with symmetry breaking potential. In particular, we focus on the process of trapping of a scalar field at an enhanced symmetry point through the thermal/non-thermal particle…
Symmetry-breaking phase transitions are ubiquitous in condensed matter systems and in quantum field theories. There is also good reason to believe that they feature in the very early history of the Universe. At many such transitions…
Cosmological phase transitions accompanied by some kind of symmetry breaking would cause the creation of topological defects and the resulting production of primordial magnetic field. Moreover, such a procedure inevitably affects the cosmic…
The classical evolution equations of the Abelian Higgs model are studied at temperatures below the Ginsburg temperature of a phase transition which is assumed to be second order. It is shown that the initial thermal fluctuations provide a…
One of the simplest extensions of the Standard Model is the Higgs portal extension involving a dark Higgs. Dark sectors that include dark matter candidates, WIMPs, axions, and dark photons, can naturally have this type of interaction, where…
We discuss production of QCD axion dark matter in a novel scenario, which assumes time-varying scale of Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking. The latter decreases as the Universe's temperature at early times and eventually stabilises at a large…
We study the full out-of-thermal-equilibrium dynamics of a relativistic classical scalar field through a symmetry breaking phase transition. In these circumstances we determine the evolution of the ensemble averages of the correlation…
When a symmetry gets spontaneously broken in a phase transition, topological defects are typically formed. The theoretical picture of how this happens in a breakdown of a global symmetry, the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, is well established and…