Phase ordering dynamics of cosmological models

Abstract

The ordering dynamics of the Higgs field is studied, using techniques inspired by the study of phase ordering in condensed matter physics, as a first step to understanding the evolution of cosmic structure through the formation of topological defects in the early universe. The common feature of these different physical processes is scaling. A fully analytical approximate scheme -- the linear-gaussian approach -- is proposed to evaluate 1-point, 2-point, etc.\ scaling functions for the ordering dynamics of the $O(n)$-symmetric Higgs-field models.

26 pages(LaTeX), 7 figures(1 PS file)