Effect of fluctuations on the Geodesic rule for topological defect formation

Abstract

At finite temperature, the field along a linear stretch of correlation length size is supposed to trace the shortest path in the field space given the two end point values, known as the Geodesic rule. In this study, we compute the probability that, the field variations over distances of correlation length follow this rule in theories with $O(2)$ global symmetry. We consider a simple ferromagnetic $O(2)$ spin-model and a complex $\phi^4$ theory. The computations are carried out on an ensemble of equilibrium configurations, generated using Monte Carlo simulations. The numerical results suggest significant deviation to the Geodesic rule, relevant for formation of topological defects during quench in 2nd order phase transition. Also for the case of $O(2)-$spins in two dimensions, distribution and density of vortices, have been studied. It is found that, for quench temperatures close to the transition point, the Kibble-Zurek Mechanism underestimates equilibrium density of defects. The exponents corresponding to width of the distributions, are found to be smaller than Kibble Mechanism estimates and match only when there is no deviation from the geodesic rule.