Related papers: Improved estimation of radiated axions from cosmol…
Cosmic string networks generate cosmological perturbations actively throughout the history of the universe. Thus, the string sourced anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background is not affected by Silk damping as much as the anisotropy…
We investigate cosmic string networks in the Abelian Higgs model using data from a campaign of large-scale numerical simulations on lattices of up to $4096^3$ grid points. We observe scaling or self-similarity of the networks over a wide…
Topological defects are a fossil relic of early Universe phase transitions, with cosmic strings being the best motivated example. While in most cases one studies Nambu-Goto or Abelian-Higgs strings, one also expects that cosmologically…
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 quantum field theory prediction of the cosmological constant is 120 orders of magnitude higher than the observed value. This is known as the cosmological constant problem. Here, we deal with the cosmological constant as a scalar field…
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…
The properties of axion miniclusters and of the voids between them can have very strong implications for the discovery of axions and the dark matter of the Universe. These properties can be strongly affected by axion dynamics in the early…
Axions constitute a well-motivated dark matter candidate, and if PQ symmetry breaking occurred after inflation, it should be possible to make a clean prediction for the relation between the axion mass and the axion dark matter density. We…
The cosmic string scenario in an open universe is developed -- including the equations of motion, a model of network evolution, the large angular scale CMB temperature anisotropy, and the power spectrum of density fluctuations produced by…
We report on a large scale numerical study of networks of semilocal cosmic strings in flat space in the parameter regime in which they are perturbatively stable. We find a population of segments with an exponential length distribution and…
We study Abelian strings in a fixed de Sitter background. We find that the gauge and Higgs fields extend smoothly across the cosmological horizon and that the string solutions have oscillating scalar fields outside the cosmological horizon…
We study cosmological solutions of (pseudo)scalar theories with periodic potentials, in the presence of arbitrary cosmological fluids -- including a cosmological constant of either sign. Independently of the initial misalignment angle and…
The evolution of cosmic perturbations in a two-component ultralight axionic universe is investigated. We present the first spectral computation of perturbations in multi-component universes. A particular case composed of light extreme…
Generalised axion-like scalar fields provide a well-motivated framework for describing the late-time acceleration of the Universe. As the field evolves, it rolls down its potential and, depending on its mass and initial conditions, it may…
The expansion history of the Universe is calculated using a simple model in which the entire rest mass energy of a massive particle is distributed throughout the set of Machian strings connecting it to all the other particles in the…
Cosmic strings with degrees of freedom beyond the standard Abrikosov-Nielsen-Olesen or Nambu-Goto strings are ubiquitous in field theory as well as in models with extra dimensions, such as string theoretic brane inflation scenarios. Here we…
Axion fluctuations generated during inflation lead to isocurvature and non-Gaussian temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation. Following a previous analysis for the model independent string axion we consider the…
We simulate the formation and the evolution of global strings taking into account the expansion of the universe and the concomitant change of the effective potential, that is, the change from the restoration stage of the global {\it…
We provide a general overview of the velocity-dependent one-scale model for cosmic string evolution and discuss two further extensions to it. We introduce and justify a new ansatz for the momentum parameter $k$, and also incorporate the…
Cosmic strings, topological defects predicted by high-energy theories, may contribute to the late-time expansion of the Universe, effectively mimicking dynamical dark energy. We investigate four phenomenological extensions of the…