texture (cosmology)

{{Update|date=January 2025}}

{{For|other things called "texture"|Texture (disambiguation)}}

In cosmology, a texture is a type of topological defect in the order parameter (typically a scalar field) of a field theory featuring spontaneous symmetry breaking.W.H. Press, “Spontaneous Production of the Zel’dovich Spectrum of CosmologicalFluctuations,”Physica Scripta, 21, 702 (1980)Turok N., 1989, Phys. Rev. Lett., 63, 2625Turok N. & Spergel D. N., 1990, Phys. Rev. Letters, 64, 2736 They are not as localized as the other defects, and are unstable. No textures have been definitively confirmed as having been detected, but their existence is compatible with current theories and observations of the universe.

In late 2007 a cold spot in the cosmic microwave background detected by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe was interpreted as possibly being a sign of a texture lying in that direction.{{cite journal| journal=Science| doi=10.1126/science.1148694| title=A Cosmic Microwave Background Feature Consistent with a Cosmic Texture| first=M.| last= Cruz|author2=N. Turok |author3=P. Vielva |author4=E. Martínez-González |author5=M. Hobson | year=2007| volume=318| pages=1612–4| pmid=17962521| issue=5856|bibcode = 2007Sci...318.1612C |arxiv = 0710.5737 | s2cid=12735226}} A 2012 study found no evidence of textures.{{Citation

| last1 = Feeney

| first1 = S. M.

| last2 = Johnson

| first2 = M. C.

| last3 = Mortlock

| first3 = D. J.

| last4 = Peiris

| first4 = H. V.

| title = Robust Constraint on Cosmic Textures from the Cosmic Microwave Background

| journal = Physical Review Letters

| volume = 108

| issue = 24

| year = 2012

| page = 241301

| arxiv = 1203.1928

| doi = 10.1103/physrevlett.108.241301 | pmid = 23004255

| bibcode = 2012PhRvL.108x1301F

| s2cid = 29935083

}}