Related papers: Vacuum defects without a vacuum
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 propose a class of field theories featuring solitonic solutions in which topological defects can end when they intersect other defects of equal or higher dimensionality. Such configurations may be termed ``Dirichlet topological…
We discuss the structure of topological defects in the context of extra dimensions where the symmetry breaking terms are localized. These defects develop structure in the extra dimension which differs from the case where symmetry breaking…
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 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…
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…
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 constructed out of scalar fields and possessing chiral fermion zero modes are known to exhibit an anomaly inflow mechanism which cancels the anomaly in the effective theory of the zero modes through an inflow of current…
Conformal symmetry can be spontaneously broken due to the presence of a defect or other background, which gives a symmetry-breaking vacuum expectation value (VEV) to some scalar operators. We study the effective field theory of fluctuations…
This article examines how the physical presence of field energy and particulate matter can be interpreted in terms of the topological properties of space-time. The theory is developed in terms of vector and matrix equations of exterior…
The topological sigma model with the semi-infinite cigar-like target space (black hole geometry) is considered. The model is shown to possess unsuppressed instantons. The noncompactness of the moduli space of these instantons is responsible…
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 global topological defects in symmetry breaking models with a non-canonical kinetic term. Apart from a mass parameter entering the potential, one additional dimensional parameter arises in such models -- a ``kinetic'' mass. The…
The study of topology in solids is undergoing a renaissance following renewed interest in the properties of ferroic domain walls as well as recent discoveries regarding topological insulators and skyrmionic lattices. Each of these systems…
By resorting to some results in quantum field theories with spontaneous breakdown of symmetry we show that an explanation based on microscopic dynamics can be given of the fact that topological defect formation is observed during the…
We enumerate all possible types of spacetime causal structures that can appear in static, spherically symmetric configurations of a self-gravitating, real, nonlinear, minimally coupled scalar field \phi in general relativity, with an…
We consider dynamics of spacetime volume-filling form fields with "wrong sign" kinetic terms, such as in so-called Type-II$^*$ string theories. Locally, these form fields are just additive renormalizations of the cosmological constant. They…
The topology of space is usually assumed simply connected, but could be multi-connected. We review in the latter case the possibility that topological defects arising at high energy phase transitions might still be present and find that…
In this paper we analyze one-loop quantum effects of a scalar field induced by a composite topological defect consisting a cosmic string on a p-dimensional brane and a (m+1)-dimensional global monopole in the transverse extra dimensions.…
In this work we review some features of topological defects in field theory models for real scalar fields. We investigate topological defects in models involving one and two or more real scalar fields. In models involving a single field we…