1998/10/23 by Ana Achúcarro, Julian Borrill, Andrew R. Liddle +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/s0921-4526(98)00458-x
Revtex file, 9 p, 6 figures, to appear in Physica B. Proceedings of the conference "Quantum Phenomena at Low Temperatures", Helsinki, 7-11 Jan 1998
arxiv created 1998/10/23 · openalex publication_date 1998/12/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
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 and stable electroweak strings, and therefore the observation that they could form in substantial quantities during a cosmological phase transition has implications for structure formation, baryogenesis, etc. At the same time, and from a purely theoretical point of view, they provide a very good testing ground for investigating the role of gauge fields in defect formation.