Probing Gauge String Formation in a Superconducting Phase Transition

TL;DR

This paper proposes experiments to observe and estimate the density of topological string defects formed during a superconducting phase transition, providing a potential test for theories of defect formation in gauge theories.

Contribution

It introduces experimental methods to detect and quantify string defect networks in superconductors, linking laboratory observations to cosmological defect theories.

Findings

Proposed experimental setups for observing string defects.

Estimated order of magnitude for flux tube density.

Potential validation of gauge theory defect formation models.

Abstract

Superconductors are the only experimentally accessible systems with spontaneously broken gauge symmetries which support topologically nontrivial defects, namely string defects. We propose two experiments whose aim is the observation of the dense network of these strings thought to arise, via the Kibble mechanism, in the course of a spontaneous symmetry breaking phase transition. We suggest ways to estimate the order of magnitude of the density of flux tubes produced in the phase transition. This may provide an experimental check for the theories of the production of topological defects in a spontaneously broken gauge theory, such as those employed in the context of the early Universe.