Related papers: Cosmological Perturbations seeded by Topological D…
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…
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 review the study of inhomogeneous perturbations about a homogeneous and isotropic background cosmology. We adopt a coordinate based approach, but give geometrical interpretations of metric perturbations in terms of the expansion, shear…
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…
Topological defects are ubiquitous in condensed-matter physics but only hypothetical in the early universe. In spite of this, even an indirect evidence for one of these cosmic objects would revolutionize our vision of the cosmos. We give…
We consider the problem of the initial conditions and behaviour of the perturbations in scalar field cosmology with general potential. We use the general definition of adiabatic and isocurvature conditions to set the appropriate initial…
Topological defects, in particular cosmic strings, give rise to an interesting mechanism for generating the primordial perturbations in the early Universe which are required to explain the present structure. An overview of the cosmic string…
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 investigate cosmological constraints on primordial isocurvature and tensor perturbations, using recent observations of the cosmic microwave background and the large scale structure. We find that present observations are consistent with…
Current theories of particle physics lead to the unavoidable conclusion that there must have been several phase transitions in the early universe. Further, in the context of these theories, it is possible that cosmological phase transitions…
In almost all structure formation models, primordial perturbations are created within a homogeneous and isotropic universe, like the one we observe. Because their ensemble averages inherit the symmetries of the spacetime in which they are…
We investigate the evolution of scalar metric perturbations across a sudden cosmological transition, allowing for an inhomogeneous surface stress at the transition leading to a discontinuity in the local expansion rate, such as might be…
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…
We provide a pedagogical overview of defect models of structure formation. We first introduce the concept of topological defect, and describe how to classify them. We then show how defects might be produced in phase transitions in the Early…
We derive the matching conditions for cosmological perturbations in a Friedmann Universe where the equation of state undergoes a sharp jump, for instance as a result of a phase transition. The physics of the transition which is needed to…
Topological defects are thought to be left behind by the cosmological phase transitions which occur as the universe expands and cools. Similar processes can be studied in the phase transitions which take place in the laboratory:…
The ekpyrotic and cyclic universe scenarios have revived the idea that the density perturbations apparent in today's universe could have been generated in a `pre-singularity' epoch before the big bang. These scenarios provide explicit…
We point out that in the context of ``two-metric'' theories of gravity there is the possibility that cosmic defects will produce a spectrum of primordial adiabatic density perturbations. This will happen when the speed characterising the…
We consider the cosmological implications of light travelling faster in the early Universe. We propose a prescription for deriving corrections to the cosmological evolution equations while the speed of light $c$ is changing. We then show…
In this paper I review some recent, interlinked, work undertaken using cosmological perturbation theory -- a powerful technique for modelling inhomogeneities in the Universe. The common theme which underpins these pieces of work is the…