CRITICAL-DYNAMICS OF SYMMETRY-BREAKING - QUENCHES, DISSIPATION, AND COSMOLOGY - ART. NO. 085021

Symmetry-breaking phase transitions may leave behind topological defec ts with a density dependence on the quench rate. We investigate the dy namics of such quenches for the one-dimensional, Landau-Ginzburg case and show that the density of kinks, n, scales differently with the que nch time scale, tau(Q), depending on whether the dynamics in the vicin ity of the critical point is overdamped (n proportional to tau(Q)(-1/4 )) or underdamped (n proportional to tau(Q)(-1/3)). Either of these ca ses may be relevant to the early Universe, and we derive bounds on the initial density of topological defects in cosmological phase transiti ons. [S0556-2821(98)01820-7].