Holographic topological defects and local gauge symmetry: clusters of strongly coupled equal-sign vortices

Abstract: Gauge invariance plays an important role in forming topological defects. In this work, from the AdS/CFT correspondence, we realize the clusters of equal-sign vortices during the course of critical dynamics of a strongly coupled superconductor. This is the first time to achieve the equal-sign vortex clusters in strongly coupled systems, considering that vortices with equal sign repel. The appearance of clusters of equal-sign vortices is a typical character of flux trapping mechanism, distinct from Kibble-Zurek mechanism which merely presents vortex-antivortex pair distributions resulting from global symmetry breaking. Numerical results of spatial correlations and net fluxes of the equal-sign vortex clusters quantitatively support the positive correlations between vortices. The linear dependence between the vortex number and the amplitude of magnetic field at the `trapping' time demonstrates the flux trapping mechanism very well.