Measuring Cosmic Defect Correlations in Liquid Crystals.

Abstract:

From the theory of topological defect formation proposed for the early universe, the so called Kibble mechanism, it follows that defects and anti-defects should exhibit specific correlations. These correlations, when suitably expressed, show universal behavior, depending only on the symmetry of the order parameter, and space dimensions. We have verified these predictions by analyzing the distributions of defects and anti-defects formed in the isotropic-nematic phase transition in nematic liquid crystals. Our experimental results confirm this prediction and are in reasonable agreement with the results of numerical simulations.