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

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....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 1994-02, Vol.263 (5149), p.943-945
Main Authors: Bowick, Mark J., Chandar, L., Schiff, E. A., Srivastava, Ajit M.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.263.5149.943