Science. 1991 Mar 15;251(4999):1336-42. doi: 10.1126/science.251.4999.1336.
Liquid crystals are remarkably useful for laboratory exploration of the dynamics of cosmologically relevant defects. They are convenient to work with, they allow the direct study of the "scaling solution" for a network of strings, and they provide a model for the evolution of monopoles and texture. Experiments described here support the simple "one-scale" model for cosmic string evolution, as well as some qualitative predictions of string statistical mechanics. The structure of monopoles and their apparent cylindrical but not spherical symmetry is discussed. A particular kind of defect known as texture is described and is shown to have a dynamical instability-it can decay into a monopole-antimonopole pair. This decay process has been observed occurring in the liquid crystal, and studied with numerical simulations.
液晶在实验室探索宇宙相关缺陷的动力学方面非常有用。它们便于使用，可以直接研究弦网的“标度解”，并为磁单极子和纹理的演化提供模型。这里描述的实验支持宇宙弦演化的简单“一标度”模型，以及弦统计力学的一些定性预测。讨论了磁单极子的结构及其明显的圆柱但非球对称性。描述了一种称为纹理的特殊类型的缺陷，并表明它具有动力学不稳定性——它可以衰变成磁单极子-磁单极子对。这种衰变过程已经在液晶中观察到，并通过数值模拟进行了研究。
