The Cosmological Kibble Mechanism in the Laboratory: String Formation in Liquid Crystals
Open Access
- 18 February 1994
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 263 (5149), 943-945
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.263.5149.943
Abstract
The production of strings (disclination lines and loops) has been observed by means of the Kibble mechanism of domain (bubble) formation in the isotropic-nematic phase transition of the uniaxial nematic liquid crystal 4-cyano-4'-n-pentylbiphenyl. The number of strings formed per bubble is about 0.6. This value is in reasonable agreement with a numerical simulation of the experiment in which the Kibble mechanism is used for the order parameter space of a uniaxial nematic liquid crystal.Keywords
Other Versions
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