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The Cosmological Kibble Mechanism in the Laboratory: String Formation in Liquid Crystals

Mark Bowick

hep-tharXiv:hep-th/9210018

Abstract

I report on the observation of the production of strings (disclination lines and loops) via the Kibble mechanism of domain (bubble) formation in the isotropic to nematic phase transition of a sample of uniaxial nematic liquid crystal. The probablity of string formation per bubble is measured to be 0.33 0.01. This is in good agreement with the theoretical value 1/ π expected in two dimensions for the order parameter space S2/ Z2 of a simple uniaxial nematic liquid crystal. ( NB: The only change is a correction of the preprint number for proper referencing and the title page.)

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