APS » PROLA » Phys. Rev. E » Volume 65 » Issue 2

Phys. Rev. E 65, 026133 (2002) [7 pages]

Formation of vortex loops (strings) in continuous phase transitions
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Mark J. Bowick1 *, Angelo Cacciuto1 †, and Alex Travesset2 ‡
1Physics Department, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244-1130
2Loomis Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana, Urbana, Illinois 61801

Received 20 July 2001; published 23 January 2002

The formation of vortex loops (global cosmic strings) in an O(2) linear sigma model in three spatial dimensions is analyzed numerically. For over-damped Langevin dynamics we find that defect production is suppressed by an interaction between correlated domains that reduces the effective spatial variation of the phase of the order field. The degree of suppression is sensitive to the quench rate. A detailed description of the numerical methods used to analyze the model is also reported.


©2002 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRE/v65/e026133
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.65.026133
PACS: 64.60.-i, 05.70.Fh, 11.15.Ex, 11.27.+d

* Email address: bowick@physics.syr.edu
† E-mail address: cacciuto@physics.syr.edu
‡ Email address: travesse@uiuc.edu

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