The Production of Strings and Monopoles at Phase Transitions

Abstract

We shall show that the density of defects produced at a second-order phase transition is determined by the correlation length of the fields. This is true both for defects appearing in the Ginzburg regime and for defects produced at a quench, when the Ginzburg regime is irrelevant. (Invited lectures given by R.J.R. to the Nato Advanced Study Institute and Euroconference on Formation and Interaction of Topological Defects, Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge (UK), September, 1994.)