1996/12/30 by Antonio Ferrera · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.57.7130
published as Phys.Rev. D57 (1998) 7130-7138 · 10 Latex pages, 9 figures available on request
arxiv created 1996/12/30 · openalex publication_date 1998/06/15 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Within the context of first order phase transitions in the early universe, we study the influence of a coupling between the [global U(1)] scalar driving the transition and the rest of the matter content of the theory. The effect of the coupling on the scalar is simulated by introducing a damping term in its equations of motion. Following a previous paper, in which we studied the influence that this coupling has on individual bubble collisions and on topological defect formation, we proceed here to quantify the impact these effects have on the number of defects created per nucleated bubble, nd. To a good accuracy, we find that nd goes through two different regimes as we increase the value of the damping coefficient \ensuremathγ. The first regime has nd changing as nd\ensuremath∝\ensuremathγ^\ensuremath-1/2, whereas for the second one nd\ensuremath∝\ensuremathγ^\ensuremath-3/4. In a first approximation, the divide between the two regimes is estimated to be at values \ensuremathγ such that \ensuremathγ\ensuremathδm\ensuremath∼2R (where R and \ensuremathδm are the bubble radius and wall thickness, respectively).