Bubble collisions in Abelian gauge theories and the geodesic rule

Abstract

In an Abelian gauge symmetry, spontaneously broken at a first order phase transition, we investigate the evolution of two and three bubbles of the broken symmetry phase. The full field equations are evolved and we concentrate in particular on gauge invariant quantities, such as the magnetic field and the integral around a closed loop of the phase gradient. An intriguing feature emerges, namely, the geodesic rule, commonly used in numerical simulations to determine the density of defects formed is shown not to hold in a number of circumstances. It appears to be a function of the initial separation of the bubbles, and the coupling strength of the gauge field. The reason for the breakdown is that in the collision region the radial mode {\it can} be excited and {\it often} oscillates about its symmetry restoring value rather than settling to its broken symmetry value. This can lead to extra windings being induced in these regions, hence extra defects (anti-defects) being formed.

8 pages RevTeX file plus 9 postscript figures (uses RevTeX). Can also be obtained by emailing EJC. Substantial additions include extension to the case of three bubble collisions, and the effect of dissipation

References in corpus (5)

• Phase equilibration in bubble collisions
• Formation of Topological Defects at First Order Phase Transitions
• On the Production of Flux Vortices and Magnetic Monopoles in Phase Transitions
• Formation of Topological Defects with Explicit Symmetry Breaking
• On The Absence Of Open Strings In A Lattice-Free Simulation Of Cosmic String Formation

Cited by in corpus (23)

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• Phase Equilibration and Magnetic Field Generation in U(1) Bubble Collisions
• Measuring Cosmic Defect Correlations in Liquid Crystals
• Vortex-Antivortex Pair Production in a First Order Phase Transition
• Cosmological Consequences of Slow-Moving Bubbles in First-Order Phase Transitions
• Defect-Antidefect pair production via field oscillations
• Estimation of vortex density after superconducting film quench
• Bubble collisions in SU(2)xU(1) gauge theory and the production of non-topological strings
• Experimental determination of correlations between spontaneously formed vortices in a superconductor
• Topological Defects from First Order Gauge Theory Phase Transitions
• Ultrafast optical generation of antiferromagnetic meron-antimeron pairs with conservation of topological charge
• How does the geodesic rule really work for global symmetry breaking first order phase transitions?
• The statistical physics of cosmological networks of string loops
• Simulation of Vortex-Antivortex Pair Production in a Phase Transition with Explicit Symettry Breaking
• A stochastic derivation of the geodesic rule
• On the formation of non-topological string networks
• Vacuum bubble collisions: from microphysics to gravitational waves
• Effect of fluctuations on the Geodesic rule for topological defect formation