Collapse of exotic textures

Journal Article · Thu May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1997 · Physical Review, D

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.55.6454· OSTI ID:587233

Sornborger, A ^[1]; Carroll, S M ^[2]; Pyne, T ^[3]

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1. Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Silver Street, Cambridge CB3 9EW, (United Kingdom)
2. Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106 (United States)
3. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 (United States)

The ordering of scalar fields after a phase transition in which a group G of global symmetries is spontaneously broken to a subgroup H provides a possible explanation for the origin of structure in the Universe, as well as leading to observable effects in condensed-matter systems. The field dynamics can depend, in principle, on the geometry and topology of the vacuum manifold G/H; for example, texture configurations which collapse and unwind will exist if the third homotopy group {pi}{sub 3}(G/H) is nontrivial. We numerically simulate the evolution of texturelike configurations in a number of different models, in order to determine the extent to which the geometry and topology of the vacuum manifold influence the field evolution. We find that the dynamics is affected by whether or not the theory supports strings or monopoles [characterized by {pi}{sub 1}(G/H) and {pi}{sub 2}(G/H), respectively]. In some of the theories studied, configurations with initially spherically symmetric energy densities are unstable to nonspherical collapse; these theories are also found to nucleate defects during the collapse. Models that do not support monopoles or strings behave similarly to each other, regardless of the specific vacuum manifold. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}

• Research Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76ER03069
• OSTI ID: 587233
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D, Journal Name: Physical Review, D Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 55; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
COSMOLOGY
GEOMETRY
GLOBAL ANALYSIS
GROUP THEORY
MAGNETIC MONOPOLES
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
SCALAR FIELDS
SIMULATION
STRING MODELS
SYMMETRY BREAKING
TEXTURE
TOPOLOGY
UNIVERSE
VACUUM STATES