PHASE ORDERING DYNAMICS OF COSMOLOGICAL MODELS

The ordering dynamics of the Higgs field is studied, using techniques inspired by the study of phase ordering in condensed matter physics, as a step to understanding the evolution of cosmic structure through the formation of topological defects in the early universe. The common feature of these different physical processes is scaling. A fully analytical approximate scheme-the linear-Gaussian approach-is proposed to evaluate one-point, two-point, etc., scaling functions for the ordering dynamics of the O(n)-symmetric Higgs-field models.