X-type and Y-type junction stability in domain wall networks

Understand

We develop an analytic formalism that allows one to quantify the stability properties of X-type and Y-type junctions in domain wall networks in two dimensions.

• A similar approach might be applicable to more general defect systems involving junctions that appear in a range of physical situations, for example, in the context of F- and D-type strings in string theory.
• We apply this formalism to a particular field theory, Carter's pentavac model, where the strength of the symmetry breaking is governed by the parameter $|\epsilon|< 1$.
• We find that for low values of the symmetry breaking parameter X-type junctions will be stable, whereas for higher values an X-type junction will separate into two Y-type junctions.