Global topological k-defects

Abstract

We consider global topological defects in symmetry breaking models with a non-canonical kinetic term. Apart from a mass parameter entering the potential, one additional dimensional parameter arises in such models -- a ``kinetic'' mass. The properties of defects in these models are quite different from ``standard'' global domain walls, vortices and monopoles, if their kinetic mass scale is smaller than their symmetry breaking scale. In particular, depending on the concrete form of the kinetic term, the typical size of such a defect can be either much larger or much smaller than the size of a standard defect with the same potential term. The characteristic mass of a non-standard defect, which might have been formed during a phase transition in the early universe, depends on both the temperature of a phase transition and the kinetic mass.