121 citations · 130 across the 2 of their papers we have counts for
4 papers
Did the universe have a beginning?
Audrey Mithani, Alexander Vilenkin
We discuss three candidate scenarios which seem to allow the possibility that the universe could have existed forever with no initial singularity: eternal infation, cyclic evolutio…
Gamma ray bursts from superconducting cosmic strings
V. Berezinsky, B. Hnatyk, A. Vilenkin
Cusps of superconducting strings can serve as GRB engines. A powerful beamed pulse of electromagnetic radiation from a cusp produces a jet of accelerated particles, whose propagati…
Defect Production in Slow First Order Phase Transitions
Julian Borrill, T. W. B. Kibble, Tanmay Vachaspati +1
We study the formation of vortices in a U(1) gauge theory following a first-order transition proceeding by bubble nucleation, in particular the effect of a low velocity of expansio…
Decay of Metastable Topological Defects
John Preskill, Alexander Vilenkin
We systematically analyze the decay of metastable topological defects that arise from the spontaneous breakdown of gauge or global symmetries. Quantum-mechanical tunneling rates ar…