Cosmology, particle physics, and superfluid 3He
Abstract
Many direct parallels connect superfluid3He with the field theories describing the physical vacuum, gauge fields and elementary fermions. Superfluid3He exhibits a variety of topological defects which can be detected with single-defect sensitivity. Modern scenarios of defect-mediated baryogenesis can be simulated by the interaction of the3He vortices and domain walls with fermionic quasiparticles. Formation of defects in a symmetry-breaking phase transition in the early Universe, which could be responsible for large-scale structure formation and for microwave-background anisotropy, also may be modelled in the laboratory. This is supported by the recent observation of vortex formation in neutron-irradiated3He-B where the “primordial fireball” is formed in an exothermic nuclear reaction.
- Publication:
-
Czechoslovak Journal of Physics Supplement
- Pub Date:
- June 1996
- DOI:
- 10.1007/BF02548109
- arXiv:
- arXiv:cond-mat/9607212
- Bibcode:
- 1996CzJPS..46.3048V
- Keywords:
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- Condensed Matter;
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology;
- High Energy Physics - Theory
- E-Print:
- Invited talk at LT-21 Conference, 20 pages, 3 figures available at request, compressed ps file of the camera-ready format with 3 figures is at ftp://boojum.hut.fi/pub/publications/lowtemp/LTL-96006.ps.gz