Related papers: Topological String Defect Formation During the Chi…
We review recent simulations of the formation of a particular class of non-topological defects known as semilocal strings during a phase transition. Semilocal strings have properties that are intermediate between topological cosmic strings…
The topic of cosmic strings provides a bridge between the physics of the very small and the very large. They are predicted by some unified theories of particle interactions. If they exist, they may help to explain some of the largest-scale…
In these lectures, I describe the formation of defect distributions in first-order phase transitions, then briefly discuss the relevance of defect interactions after a phase transition and the observational signatures of cosmic strings.…
Non-abelian (NA) topological string defects exist in QCD with the spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking $U(N_f)_L \times U(N_f)_R \to U(N_f)_V$. Anomaly effects lead to domain walls connected to these strings. In the framework of linear…
Non-Abelian global strings are expected to form during the chiral phase transition. They have orientational zero modes in the internal space, associated with the vector-like symmetry SU(N)_{L+R} broken in the presence of strings. The…
We study the behaviour of cosmic string networks in contracting universes, and discuss some of their possible consequences. We note that there is a fundamental time asymmetry between defect network evolution for an expanding universe and a…
We construct non-Abelian global string solutions in the U(N)_L x U(N)_R linear sigma model. These strings are the most fundamental objects which are expected to form during the chiral phase transitions, because the Abelian eta' string is…
(3+1)D topological phases of matter can host a broad class of non-trivial topological defects of codimension-1, 2, and 3, of which the well-known point charges and flux loops are special cases. The complete algebraic structure of these…
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…
Cosmic strings are topological defects possibly formed in the early Universe, which may be observable due to their gravitational effects on the cosmic microwave background radiation or gravitational wave experiments. To this effect it is…
We study the production of cosmological axions in the standard scenario in which a global string network forms at the Peccei-Quinn phase transition. We make detailed calculations of the axions produced by string loops (a previously…
It has been pointed out that cosmic string solutions can exist in gauge field theories with broken symmetry even when $\pi _1(G/H)$ is trivial. The stability of such semilocal defects is not guaranteed by topology and depends on dynamical…
Superconductors are the only experimentally accessible systems with spontaneously broken gauge symmetries which support topologically nontrivial defects, namely string defects. We propose two experiments whose aim is the observation of the…
Topological defects such as cosmic strings may have been formed at early-universe phase transitions. Direct tests of this idea are impossible, but the mechanism can be elucidated by studying analogous processes in low-temperature…
We study the behaviour and consequences of cosmic string networks in contracting universes. They approximately behave during the collapse phase as a radiation fluids. Scaling solutions describing this are derived and tested against…
We study the formation and evolution of topological defects in an aligned axion model with multiple Peccei-Quinn scalars, where the QCD axion is realized by a certain combination of the axions with decay constants much smaller than the…
These are notes of a series of lectures on mirror symmetry and topological string theory given at the Mathematical Sciences Center at Tsinghua University. The N=2 superconformal algebra, its deformations and its chiral ring are reviewed. 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…
Cosmic strings are one-dimensional topological defects which could have been formed in the early stages of our Universe. They triggered a lot of interest, mainly for their cosmological implications: they could offer an alternative to…
Topologically ordered quantum systems have robust physical properties, such as quasiparticle statistics and ground-state degeneracy, which do not depend on the microscopic details of the Hamiltonian. We consider topological phase…