Global topologicalk-defects

Abstract

We consider global topological defects in symmetry-breaking models with a noncanonical kinetic term. Apart from a mass parameter entering the potential, one additional dimensional parameter arises in such models---a kinetic mass. The properties of defects in these models are quite different from standard global domain walls, vortices, and monopoles, if their kinetic mass scale is smaller than their symmetry-breaking scale. In particular, depending on the concrete form of the kinetic term, the typical size of such a defect can be either much larger or much smaller than the size of a standard defect with the same potential term. The characteristic mass of a nonstandard defect, which might have been formed during a phase transition in the early universe, depends on both the temperature of a phase transition and the kinetic mass.