Related papers: Monopole annihilation in cosmic necklaces
A variation on the abelian Higgs model, with global SU(2) x local U(1) symmetry broken to global U(1) was recently shown by Vachaspati and Achucarro to admit stable, finite energy cosmic string solutions even though the manifold of minima…
Moduli fields are generally present in superstring--inspired models. They are typically characterized by masses of the order of the supersymmetry breaking scale and by interactions of gravitational strength to ordinary matter. If stable,…
This talk explores the possibility that the Universe may be populated with relic magnetic monopoles. Observations of galactic and extragalactic magnetic fields, lead to the conclusion that monopoles of mass < 10^{14} GeV are accelerated in…
Nuclear Star Clusters are observed at the center of many galaxies. In particular in the center of the Milky Way the Nuclear Star Cluster coexists with a cen- tral supermassive black hole. The origin of these clusters is still unknown; a…
These relics from the early universe could be the answer to many astrophysical conundrums.
The statistics of black holes and their masses strongly suggests that their mass distribution has a cutoff towards lower masses near $3 \times 10^{6}$ M$_{\odot}$. This is consistent with a classical formation mechanism from the…
Grand unified theories can admit cosmic strings with fermion zero modes which result in the string carrying a current and the formation of stable remnants, vortons. We consider theories in which the zero modes do not survive a subsequent…
Magnetic monopole is a well-motivated class of beyond-Standard-Model particles that could provide insights into the long-standing puzzle of the quantization of electric charge. These hypothetical particles are likely to be super heavy…
Dirac showed that the existence of one magnetic pole in the universe could offer an explanation of the discrete nature of the electric charge. Magnetic poles appear naturally in most grand unified theories. Their discovery would be of…
Macroscopic fundamental and Dirichlet strings have several potential instabilities: breakage, tachyon decays, and confinement by axion domain walls. We investigate the conditions under which metastable strings can exist, and we find that…
The formation and evolution of superdense clumps (or subhalos) is studied. Such clumps of dark matter (DM) can be produced by many mechanisms, most notably by spiky features in the spectrum of inflationary perturbations and by cosmological…
We study the properties of classical vortex solutions in a non-Abelian gauge theory. A system of two adjoint Higgs fields breaks the SU(2) gauge symmetry to $Z_2$, producing 't Hooft-Polyakov monopoles trapped on cosmic strings, termed…
Symmetry breaking can produce ``Alice'' strings, which alter scattered charges and carry monopole number and charge when twisted into loops. Alice behavior arises algebraically, when strings obstruct unbroken symmetries -- a fragile…
We consider the low energy phenomenology of superstrings. In particular we analyse supersymmetry breaking via gaugino condensate and we compare the phenomenology of the two different approaches to stabilize the dilaton field. We study the…
We investigate the entanglement entropy and the information flow of two-dimensional moving mirrors. Here we point out that various mirror trajectories can help to mimic different candidate resolutions to the information loss paradox…
Supersymmetry implies that stable non-topological solitons, Q-balls, could form in the early universe and could make up all or part of dark matter. We show that the relic Q-balls passing through Earth can produce a detectable neutrino flux.…
We demonstrate that necklace-shaped arrays of localized spatial beams can merge into stable fundamental or vortex solitons in a generic model of laser cavities, based on the two-dimensional complex Ginzburg-Landau equation with the…
At its very beginning, the universe is believed to have grown exponentially in size via the mechanism of inflation. The almost scale-invariant density perturbation spectrum predicted by inflation is strongly supported by cosmological…
We draw attention to a problem with the alpha-Omega dynamo when it is applied to the origin of the galactic magnetic field under the assumption of perfect flux freezing. The standard theory involves the expulsion of undesirable flux and,…
Cosmic strings can arise in hidden sector models with a spontaneously broken Abelian symmetry group. We have studied the couplings of the Standard Model fields to these so-called dark strings in the companion paper. Here we survey the…