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Science 15 March 1991:
Vol. 251. no. 4999, pp. 1336 - 1342
DOI: 10.1126/science.251.4999.1336
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Articles

Cosmology in the Laboratory: Defect Dynamics in Liquid Crystals

ISAAC CHUANG 1, RUTH DURRER 2, NEIL TUROK 2, and BERNARD YURKE 1

1 AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ 07974
2 Joseph Henry Laboratories, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544

Liquid crystals are remarkably useful for laboratory exploration of the dynamics of cosmologically relevant defects. They are convenient to work with, they allow the direct study of the "scaling solution" for a network of strings, and they provide a model for the evolution of monopoles and texture. Experiments described here support the simple "one-scale" model for cosmic string evolution, as well as some qualitative predictions of string statistical mechanics. The structure of monopoles and their apparent cylindrical but not spherical symmetry is discussed. A particular kind of defect known as texture is described and is shown to have a dynamical instability—it can decay into a monopole-antimonopole pair. This decay process has been observed occurring in the liquid crystal, and studied with numerical simulations.

Submitted on November 5, 1990
Accepted on January 25, 1991


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