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Phase transitions associated with spontaneously broken global symmetries, in case these occur in nature, can have important cosmological implications. This is illustrated through two examples. The first one shows how the spontaneous breaking of a global U(1) symmetry, present, for instance, in the minimal SU(5) model, can lead to an inflationary phase. The second example illustrates how topologically stable strings associated with the breaking of a U(1) symmetry make an appearance at (or near) the end of the inflationary era.
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Shafi et al. (1984) studied this question.
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