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

Mark Bowick
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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 $0.33 \pm 0.01$. This is in good agreement with the theoretical value $1/ π$ expected in two dimensions for the order parameter space $S^2/{\bf Z}_2$ 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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Mark Bowick. 1992-11-02. The Cosmological Kibble Mechanism in the Laboratory: String Formation in Liquid Crystals. https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9210018

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