Topological defects, the unavoidable result of many symmetry-breaking phase transitions, can reveal the properties of many condensed matter systems, may be responsible for seeding the density perturbations that developed into galaxies, and are of interest to mathematicians as non-trivial solutions o

Inhalt

Introduction. Phase Transitions in the Early Universe and Defect Formation; T.W.B. Kibble. The Topological Classification of Defects; M. Kleman. Introduction to Growth Kinetics Problems; G.F. Mazenko. Dynamics of Cosmological Phase Transitions: What Can We Learn from Condensed Matter Physics? N. Goldenfeld. Topological Defects and Phase Ordering Dynamics; A.J. Bray. The Production of Strings and Monopoles at Phase Transitions; R.J Rivers, T.S. Evans. Geometry of Defect Scattering; N.S. Manton. Theory of Fluctuating Nonholonomic Fields and Applications: Statistical Mechanics of Vortices and Defects and New Physical Laws in Spaces with Curvature and Torsion; H. Kleinert. String Network Evolution; E.P.S. Shellard. Global Field Dynamics and Cosmological Structure Formation; R. Durrer. Electroweak Baryogenesis; N.G. Turok. Dynamics of Cosmic Strings and Other Brane Models; B. Carter. Cosmological Experiments in Superfluids and Superconductors; W. Zurek. Cosmological Experiments in Liquid 4He-Problems and Prospects; P.C. Hendry et al. Index.