Related papers: The Flow Around a Cosmic String, Part I: Hydrodyna…
String theory contains sources like orientifold planes that support higher derivative interactions. These interactions make possible static flux compactifications which are forbidden in supergravity. They can also lead to violations of the…
We study the structure of cosmic strings produced at the breaking of an anomalous U(1) gauge symmetry present in many superstring compactification models. We show that their coupling with the axion necessary in order to cancel the anomalies…
We study the relative contribution of cusps and pseudocusps, on cosmic (super)strings, to the emitted bursts of gravitational waves. The gravitational wave emission in the vicinity of highly relativistic points on the string follows, for a…
We introduce a very early universe model based on the thermodynamics of a gas of closed strings in a background which is non-perturbative in $\alpha'$. Upon considering the fully $\alpha'$-corrected equations extended to include certain…
We consider the signature and detectability of gravitational microlensing of distant quasars by cosmic strings. Because of the simple image configuration such events will have a characteristic light curve, in which a source would appear to…
This is a pedagogical introduction to the basics of the cosmic string theory and also a review of the recent progress made with respect to the macrophysical predictions of the theory. Topics covered include, string formation and evolution,…
We discuss formation of cosmic strings associated with a spontaneously broken approximate $U(1)$ symmetry by performing classical field-theoretical simulations. An original $U(1)$ symmetry is explicitly broken down to its subgroup $Z_N$…
This is a short review on strings in curved spacetimes. We start by recalling the classical and quantum string behaviour in singular plane waves backgrounds. We then report on the string behaviour in cosmological spacetimes (FRW, de Sitter,…
Cosmic strings are predicted to form kinks and cusps that travel along the string at close to the speed of light. These disturbances are radiated away as highly beamed gravitational waves that produce a burst like pulse as the cone of…
We examine the Standard Model field configurations near cosmic strings in a particular class of models. This class is defined by the condition that the generator of the flux in the string, $T_s$, commutes with the Standard Model Lie…
We derive analytic expressions for the interaction energy between two general $U(1)$ cosmic strings as the function of their relative orientation and the ratio of the coupling constants in the model. The results are relevant to the…
We investigate nonthermal phase transitions that may occur after post-inflationary preheating in a simple model of a two-component scalar field with the effective potential $\lambda (\phi_i^2 - {\rm v}^2)^2/4$, where $\phi_1$ is identified…
We study the collisions of elastic superconducting strings, also referred to as current-carrying strings, formed in a $U_{\rm local}(1) \times U_{\rm global}(1)$ field-theory model, using three-dimensional numerical field-theoretic…
A novel mechanism for the production of a cosmic network of fundamental superstrings based on a time-varying string tension has been recently proposed in the context of a kinating background driven by the volume modulus of string…
Brane inflation in superstring theory ends when branes collide, initiating the hot big bang. Cosmic superstrings are produced during the brane collision. The cosmic superstrings produced in a D3-brane-antibrane inflationary scenario have a…
In the modified measure formulation the string tension appear as an additional dynamical degree of freedom and these tensions are not universal, but rather each string generates its own tension, which can have a different value for each…
The GRB outflow driven by superconducting cosmic strings is likely to be an arc rather than a usually-considered spherical cap. In such a case, the afterglows of the cosmic string GRBs could be basically consistent with the observation of…
We study the deflection of light in the background of a "wiggly" cosmic string, and investigate whether it is possible to detect cosmic strings by means of weak gravitational lensing. For straight strings without small-scale structure there…
We present a study of open inflation cosmological scenarios in which cosmic strings form betwen the two inflationary epochs. It is shown that in these models strings are stretched outside the horizon due to the inflationary expansion but…
Recent work suggests that fundamental and Dirichlet strings, and their (p,q) bound states, may be observed as cosmic strings. The evolution of cosmic string networks, and therefore their observational signals, depends on what happens when…