Cosmic String Loops and Gravitational Radiation
Abstract
Understanding of the signatures of cosmic string networks is limited by a large uncertainty in the sizes at which cosmic string loops form. We review cosmic string network evolution, and the gravitational signatures, with emphasis on this uncertainty. We then review a recent analytic model of cosmic string networks. In combination with recent simulations, this suggests that 90% of the string goes into very small loops, at the gravitational radiation scale, and 10% into loops near the Hubble scale. We discuss cosmic string signatures in such a scenario, and the `inverse problem' of determining the microscopic cosmic string properties from observations.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0707.0888,
title = {Cosmic String Loops and Gravitational Radiation},
author = {Joseph Polchinski},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0707.0888},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
26 pages, to appear in the Proceedings of the 11th Marcel Grossman meeting. v2: Additional paragraph about uncertainties in bounds (sec. 5.2)