Journal article Open Access

# Cosmological experiments in superfluid helium?

Zurek, W. H.

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{
"description": "Symmetry breaking phase transitions occurring in the early Universe are expected to leave behind long-lived topologically stable structures such as monopoles, strings or domain walls1\u20136. Here I discuss the analogy between cosmological strings and vortex lines in the superfluid, and suggest a cryogenic experiment which tests key elements of the cosmological scenario for string formation. In a superfluid obtained through a rapid pressure quench, the phase of the Bose condensate wavefunction\u2014the 4He analogue of the broken symmetry of the field-theoretic vacuum\u2014will be chosen randomly in domains of some characteristic size d. When the quench is performed in an annulus of circumference C the typical value of the phase mismatch around the loop will be \u223c(C/d)1/2. The resulting phase gradient can foe sufficiently large to cause the superfluid to flow with a measurable (mm s\u22121), randomly directed velocity.",
"creator": [
{
"@type": "Person",
"name": "Zurek, W. H."
}
],
"headline": "Cosmological experiments in superfluid helium?",
"datePublished": "1985-10-10",
"url": "https://zenodo.org/record/1233041",
"@context": "https://schema.org/",
"identifier": "https://doi.org/10.1038/317505a0",
"@id": "https://doi.org/10.1038/317505a0",
"@type": "ScholarlyArticle",
"name": "Cosmological experiments in superfluid helium?"
}
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