Related papers: Topological Defects from First Order Gauge Theory …
Formation and evolution of topological defects in course of non-equilibrium symmetry breaking phase transitions is of wide interest in many areas of physics, from cosmology through condensed matter to low temperature physics. Its study in…
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…
Placing a high-Tc superconductor in an increasing external magnetic field, the flux first penetrates the sample through an Abrikosov vortex lattice, and then a first order transition is observed by which the system goes to the normal phase.…
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…
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…
Our understanding of the mechanism by which topological defects are formed in symmetry breaking phase transitions has recently changed. We examine the non-equilibrium dynamics of defect formation for weakly-coupled global O(N) theories…
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…
Cosmic strings are stable topological defects that may have been created at a phase transition in the early universe. It is a growing belief that, for a wide range of theoretical models, such strings may be superconducting and carry…
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 carry out numerical simulations to investigate spontaneous vortex formation during a temperature quench of a superconductor film from the normal to the superconducting phase in the absence of an external magnetic field. Our results agree…
Topological defects, particularly cosmic strings, can provide a mechanism to produce particles with energies of the order 10^21 eV and higher. Here, we report on order of magnitude calculations of fluxes from a cosmic string network which…
Topological defects such as vortices, dislocations or domain walls define many important effects in superconductivity, superfluidity, magnetism, liquid crystals, and plasticity of solids. Here we address the breakdown of the…
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 review cosmological phase transitions and the topological aspects of spontaneous symmetry breaking. I then discuss the formation of walls, strings and monopoles during phase transitions including lattice based studies…
In this pedagogical review, we discuss how electrical resistance can arise in superconductors. Starting with the idea of the superconducting order parameter as a condensate wave function, we introduce vortices as topological excitations…
Using Monte Carlo simulations, we study thermal and critical properties of two systems, in which domain walls and so-called $Z_2$-vortices as topological defects are presented. The main model is a lattice version of the $O(3)$ principal…
We report the direct imaging of a novel modulated flux striped domain phase in a nearly twin-free YBCO crystal. These domains arise from instabilities in the vortex structure within a narrow region of tilted magnetic fields at small angles…
Thin superconducting films are usually regarded as type II superconductors even when they are made of a type I material. The reason is a strong contribution of the stray magnetic field that stabilizes vortices. While very thin films indeed…
In superconductors, and in other systems with a local U(1) gauge invariance, there are two mechanisms that form topological defects in phase transitions. In addition to the standard Kibble mechanism, thermal fluctuations of the magnetic…
Topological defects arise in a variety of systems, e.g. vortices in superfluid helium to cosmic strings in the early universe. There is an indirect evidence of neutron superfluid vortices from glitches in pulsars. One also expects that…