15 papers
Causality and non-equilibrium second-order phase transitions in inhomogeneous systems
A. del Campo, T. W. B. Kibble, W. H. Zurek
When a second-order phase transition is crossed at fine rate, the evolution of the system stops being adiabatic as a result of the critical slowing down in the neighborhood of the…
Cosmology with a spin
Joao Magueijo, T. G. Zlosnik, T. W. B. Kibble
Using the chiral representation for spinors we present a particularly transparent way to generate the most general spinor dynamics in a theory where gravity is ruled by the Einstei…
Large pre-inflationary thermal density perturbations
Richard Lieu, T. W. B. Kibble
In some versions of the theory of inflation, it is assumed that before inflation began the universe was in a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) stage, with the energy density dominat…
Cosmic Strings and Superstrings
Edmund J. Copeland, T. W. B. Kibble
Cosmic strings are predicted by many field-theory models, and may have been formed at a symmetry-breaking transition early in the history of the universe, such as that associated w…
Kinks and small-scale structure on cosmic strings
E. J. Copeland, T. W. B. Kibble
We discuss some hitherto puzzling features of the small-scale structure of cosmic strings. We argue that kinks play a key role, and that an important quantity to study is their sha…
Testing cosmological defect formation in the laboratory
T. W. B. Kibble
Topological defects such as cosmic strings may have been formed at early-universe phase transitions. Direct tests of this idea are impossible, but the mechanism can be elucidated b…