Related papers: Cosmic String Loop Microlensing
Cosmic superstrings of string theory differ from conventional cosmic strings of field theory. We review how the physical and cosmological properties of the macroscopic string loops influence experimental searches for these relics from the…
The properties of string networks at scales well below the horizon are poorly understood, but they enter critically into many observables. We argue that in some regimes, stretching will be the only relevant process governing the evolution.…
The gravitational lensing by long, wiggly cosmic strings is shown to produce a large number of lensed images of a background source. In addition to pairs of images on either side of the string, a number of small images outline the string…
Cosmic strings are predicted in many models beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. In models which admit strings, a network of strings will inevitably be formed in a phase transition in the early universe and will persist to the…
Gravitational microlensing within the Galaxy offers the prospect of probing the details of distant stellar sources, as well as revealing the distribution of compact (and potentially non-luminous) masses along the line-of-sight. Recently, it…
We develop an analytical model to study the production spectrum of loops in the cosmic string network. In the scaling regime, we find two different scales corresponding to large (one order below horizon) and small (few orders below horizon)…
The fragmentation of horizon crossing superstrings creates loops that accrete and bind to collapsing matter perturbations if the string tension is less than a critical value and if the loops are large-scale. For typical model parameters…
The existence of a scaling evolution for cosmic string loops in an expanding universe is demonstrated for the first time by means of numerical simulations. In contrast with what is usually assumed, this result does not rely on any…
Gravitational microlensing occurs when a foreground star happens to pass very close to our line of sight to a more distant background star. The foreground star acts as a lens, splitting the light from the source star into two images, which…
The gravity due to a multiple-mass system has a remarkable gravitational effect: the extreme magnification of background light sources along extended so-called caustic lines. This property has been the channel for some remarkable…
Astrometric microlensing will offer in the next future a new channel for investigating the nature of both lenses and sources involved in a gravitational microlensing event. The effect, corresponding to the shift of the position of the…
We study light variability of gravitationally magnified high-redshift star clusters induced by a foreground population of microlenses. This arises as the incoherent superposition of light variations from a large number of source stars…
The unique, conical spacetime created by cosmic strings brings about distinctive gravitational lensing phenomena. The variety of these distinctive phenomena is increased when the strings have non-trivial mutual interactions. In particular,…
Here, we study the microlensing of radially pulsating stars. Discerning and characterizing the properties of distant, faint pulsating stars is achievable through high-cadence microlensing observations. Combining stellar variability period…
Flat directions are a generic feature of the scalar potential in supersymmetric gauge field theories. They can arise, for example, from D-terms associated with an extra abelian gauge symmetry. Even when supersymmetry is broken softly, there…
Cosmic strings are predicted by many field-theory models, and may have been formed at a symmetry-breaking transition early in the history of the universe, such as that associated with grand unification. They could have important…
We investigate the contribution made by small loops from a cosmic string network as seeds for large-scale structure formation. We show that cosmic string loops are highly correlated with the long-string network on large scales and therefore…
Cosmic strings are topological defects possibly formed in the early Universe, which may be observable due to their gravitational effects on the cosmic microwave background radiation or gravitational wave experiments. To this effect it is…
In an analysis of the gravitational lensing by two relativistic cosmic strings, we argue that the formation of closed time-like curves proposed by Gott is unstable in the presence of particles (e.g. the cosmic microwave background…
Microlensing of stars in strongly lensed galaxies can lead to temporary extreme magnification factors ($\mu\!>\!1000$), enabling their detection at high redshifts. Following the discovery of Icarus, several stars at cosmological distances…