Abstract :

Liquid crystals provide a very convenient system where topological defects, such as strings, can be experimentally studied in a variety of physical conditions. We will discuss how the observations of string formation in a liquid crystal system can be used to test theories of cosmic string formation in the early universe. The main focus of these investigations is on various universal aspects of defect formation with which one can establish rigorous quantitative correspondence between these condensed matter experiments and elementary particle physics models of the early universe.