Related papers: Formation & evolution of cosmic superstrings: a sh…
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…
In the present work we discuss cosmic strings in natural inflation. Our analysis is based entirely on the CMB quadrupole temperature anisotropy and on the existing upper bound on the cosmic string tension. Our results show that the allowed…
Cosmic superstring loops within the galaxy microlens background point sources lying close to the observer-string line of sight. For suitable alignments, multiple paths coexist and the (achromatic) flux enhancement is a factor of two. We…
Superstring theory has continued to develop at a rapid clip in the past few years. Following a quick review of some of the major discoveries prior to 1998, this talk focuses on a few of the more recent developments. The topics I have chosen…
In supersymmetric theories, topological defects can have nontrivial behaviors determined purely by whether or not supersymmetry is restored in the defect core. A well-known example of this is that some supersymmetric cosmic strings are…
A recently proposed mechanism for large-scale structure in string cosmology --based on massless axionic seeds-- is further analyzed and extended to the acoustic-peak region. Existence, structure, and normalization of the peaks turn out to…
We compare the spectrum of the stochastic gravitational wave background produced in several models of cosmic strings with the common-spectrum process recently reported by NANOGrav. We discuss theoretical uncertainties in computing such a…
The smallness of the cosmological constant is one of the basic problems in particle physics and cosmology. Various attempts have been made to explain this mystery, but no satisfactory solution has been found yet. The appearance of extra…
We extend the idea of mirage cosmology to M-theory. Considering the motion of a probe brane in the M-theory background generated by a stack of non-threshold (M2,M5) bound states, we study the cosmological evolution of the brane universe in…
Cosmic strings are stable topological defects that may have been created at a phase transition in the early universe. It is a growing belief that, for a wide range of theoretical models, such strings may be superconducting and carry…
This review is devoted to strings and branes. Firstly, perturbative string theory is introduced. The appearance of various types of branes is discussed. These include orbifold fixed planes, D-branes and orientifold planes. The connection to…
This paper explores the phenomenon of particle creation associated with cosmic strings in de Sitter spacetime, a model that represents the universe exponential expansion. We examine how the presence of cosmic strings in a de Sitter…
I report recent studies on the evolution of perturbations in the context of the ``pre-big-bang" scenario typical of string cosmology, with emphasis on the formation of a stochastic background of relic photons and gravitons, and its possible…
There are many interesting issues in the brane world with a large/warped extra dimension. We focus on the cosmological aspects. We review the cosmological solutions of the brane world and how the conventional four-dimensional cosmology is…
The purpose of this review is to discuss recent developments occurring at the interface of cosmology with string and M-theory. We begin with a short review of 1980s string cosmology and the Brandenberger-Vafa mechanism for explaining…
Space-filling S-branes can mediate a transition between a contracting and an expanding universe in the Einstein frame. Following up on previous work that uncovered such bouncing solutions in the context of weakly coupled thermal…
Topological defects are involved in a plethora of physical and astrophysical phenomena. In these lectures, I will review the r\^ ole they could play in the large-scale structure formation and the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave…
We consider new cosmological solutions with a collapsing, an intermediate and an expanding phase. The boundary between the expanding (collapsing) phase and the intermediate phase is seen by comoving observers as a cosmological past (future)…
We investigate the peculiar velocity field due to long cosmic strings in several cosmological models and analyse the influence of a nonscaling behaviour of the string network, which is expected in open cosmological models or models with a…
String cosmology aims at providing a reliable description of the very early Universe in the regime where standard-model physics is no longer appropriate, and where we can safely apply the basic ingredients of superstring models such as…