Related papers: Testing cosmological defect formation in the labor…
I will briefly review the formation and evolution of cosmic superstrings, in the context of brane-world cosmological models within M-theory. These objects can play the role of cosmic strings, offering a variety of astrophysical…
We use laser-cooled ion Coulomb crystals in the well-controlled environment of a harmonic radiofrequency ion trap to investigate phase transitions and defect formation. Topological defects in ion Coulomb crystals (kinks) have been recently…
I point out how coherence vortices, i.e., topological defects in a correlation function, could help explore new physics if they are created in matter waves. Vortex dynamics could be studied in up to six dimensions, and spin topological…
We analyze the evolution of scalar and gauge fields during first order phase transitions and show how the Kibble mechanism for the formation of topological defects emerges from the underlying dynamics, paying particular attention to…
A new experiment has been performed to study the formation of topological defects (quantized vortices) during rapid quenches of liquid 4He through the superfluid transition, with particular care taken to minimise vortex creation via…
Cosmic strings, as topological spacetime defects, show striking resemblance to defects in solid continua: distortions, which can be classified into disclinations and dislocations, are line-like defects characterized by a delta…
Cosmic (super)strings offer promising ways to test ideas about the early universe and physics at high energies. While in field theory constructions their tension is usually assumed to be constant (or at most slowly-varying), this is often…
We review the existence, formation and properties of cosmic strings in string theory, the wide variety of observational techniques that are being employed to detect them, and the constraints that current observations impose on string theory…
We analyze the core structure of string defects in various condensed matter systems, such as nematic liquid crystals and superfluid helium, and argue that in certain cases the variation of the refractive index near the core is such that it…
We consider vacuum tunneling of a new kind where the false vacua are not translationally invariant, but have topological defects that break some of their translational symmetries. In the particular case where the topological defects are…
We study cosmological solutions to the low-energy effective action of heterotic string theory including possible leading order $\alpha'$ corrections and a potential for the dilaton. We consider the possibility that including such stringy…
Grand unified theories can admit cosmic strings with fermion zero modes which result in the string carrying a current and the formation of stable remnants, vortons. We consider theories in which the zero modes do not survive a subsequent…
We consider a network of topological defects which can partly decay into neutrinos, photons, baryons, or Cold Dark Matter. We find that the degree-scale amplitude of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies as well as the shape of…
In contrast to ordinary symmetries, supersymmetry interchanges bosons and fermions. Originally proposed as a symmetry of our universe, it still awaits experimental verification. Here we theoretically show that supersymmetry emerges…
The COBE satellite has discovered anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) consistent with a scale invariant spectrum of density perturbations. As reviewed in this lecture, topological defect models of structure formation…
We measure the defect density as a function of time at different temperatures in simulations of a two dimensional system of interacting particles. Just above the solid to liquid transition temperature, the power spectrum of the defect…
The experiments on verification of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism showed that topological defects are formed most efficiently in the systems of small size or low (quasi-)dimensionality, whereas in the macroscopic two- and three-dimensional…
We investigate nonthermal phase transitions that may occur after post-inflationary preheating in a simple model of a two-component scalar field with the effective potential $\lambda (\phi_i^2 - {\rm v}^2)^2/4$, where $\phi_1$ is identified…
The standard theory of cosmic structure formation posits that the present-day rich structure of the Universe developed through gravitational amplification of tiny matter density fluctuations generated in its very early history. Recent…
We discuss the essential features of baby-universe production, starting from a description of black holes and wormholes, in terms of the causal structure of spacetime, and following a qualitative review of the connection between vacuum…