No Arabic abstract
We consider quantum phase transitions with global symmetry breakings that result in the formation of topological defects. We evaluate the number densities of kinks, vortices, and monopoles that are produced in $d=1,2,3$ spatial dimensions respectively and find that they scale as $t^{-d/2}$ and evolve towards attractor solutions that are independent of the quench timescale. For $d=1$ our results apply in the region of parameters $lambda tau/m ll 1$ where $lambda$ is the quartic self-interaction of the order parameter, $tau$ is the quench timescale, and $m$ the mass parameter.
In these Lectures a method is described to analyze the effect of quantum fluctuations on topological defect backgrounds up to the one-loop level. The method is based on the spectral heat kernel/zeta function regularization procedure, and it is first applied to various types of kinks arising in several deformed linear and non-linear sigma models with different numbers of scalar fields. In the second part, the same conceptual framework is constructed for the topological solitons of the planar semilocal Abelian Higgs model, built from a doublet of complex scalar fields and one U(1) gauge field.
We study codimension-even conical defects that contain a deficit solid angle around each point along the defect. We show that they lead to a delta function contribution to the Lovelock scalar and we compute the contribution by two methods. We then show that these codimension-even defects appear as Euclidean brane solutions in higher dimensional topological AdS gravity which is Lovelock-Chern-Simons gravity without torsion. The theory possesses a holographic Weyl anomaly that is purely of type-A and proportional to the Lovelock scalar. Using the formula for the defect contribution, we prove a holographic duality between codimension-even defect partition functions and codimension-even brane on-shell actions in Euclidean signature. More specifically, we find that the logarithmic divergences match, because the Lovelock-Chern-Simons action localizes on the brane exactly. We demonstrate the duality explicitly for a spherical defect on the boundary which extends as a codimension-even hyperbolic brane into the bulk. For vanishing brane tension, the geometry is a foliation of Euclidean AdS space that provides a one-parameter generalization of AdS-Rindler space.
We propose a new way to build networks of defects. The idea takes advantage of the deformation procedure recently employed to describe defect structures, which we use to construct networks, spread from small rudimentary networks that appear in simple models of scalar fields.
An algebraic framework for quantization in presence of arbitrary number of point-like defects on the line is developed. We consider a scalar field which interacts with the defects and freely propagates away of them. As an application we compute the Casimir force both at zero and finite temperature. We derive also the charge density in the Gibbs state of a complex scalar field with defects. The example of two delta-defects is treated in detail.
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 strongly coupled systems, in absence of quasiparticles, is especially challenging. We investigate breaking of U(1) symmetry and the resulting spontaneous formation of vortices in a $(2+1)$-dimensional holographic superconductor employing gauge/gravity duality, a `first-principles approach to study strongly coupled systems. Magnetic fluxons with quantized fluxes are seen emerging in the post-transition superconducting phase. As expected in type II superconductors, they are trapped in the cores of the order parameter vortices. The dependence of the density of these topological defects on the quench time, the dispersion of the typical winding numbers in the superconductor, and the vortex-vortex correlations are consistent with predictions of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism.