Critical Slowing Down and Defect Formation

TL;DR

This paper explores how critical slowing down influences defect formation during phase transitions, extending concepts from condensed matter to the early universe and highlighting potential new scaling laws at high temperatures.

Contribution

It demonstrates the emergence of critical slowing down in relativistic quantum field theory and discusses its implications for defect formation in cosmological phase transitions.

Findings

Critical slowing down can be described within relativistic quantum field theory.

New scaling laws may appear at very high temperatures.

The mechanism supports defect formation models in the early universe.

Abstract

The formation of topological defects in a second order phase transition in the early universe is an out-of-equilibrium process. Condensed matter experiments seem to support Zurek's mechanism, in which the freezing of thermal fluctuations close to the critical point (critical slowing down) plays a crucial role. We discuss how this picture can be extrapolated to the early universe, pointing out that new scaling laws may emerge at very high temperatures and showing how critical slowing down emerges in the context of a relativistic quantum field theory.