Related papers: Type I Abelian Higgs strings: evolution and Cosmic…

Cosmic strings formed during inflation are expected to be either diluted over super-Hubble distances, i.e., invisible today, or to have crossed our past light cone very recently. We discuss the latter situation in which a few strings…

We study the classical cosmic string solution in a theory with dynamical $U(1)$ symmetry breaking. We calculate the energy per unit length of the string and compare it to that obtained in a model with a fundamental Higgs. We find that the…

The spontaneous breaking of a $U(1)$ symmetry via an intermediate discrete symmetry may yield a hybrid topological defect of \emph{domain walls bounded by cosmic strings}. The decay of this defect network leads to a unique gravitational…

The recent observation that the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) may prefer a neutrino excess has triggered a number of works studying this possibility. The effect obtained by the non-interacting massless neutrino excess could be mimicked…

Cosmic strings are a type of cosmic defect formed by a symmetry-breaking phase transition in the early universe. Individual strings would have gathered to build a network, and their dynamical motion would induce scalar--, vector-- and…

We perform a multiparameter likelihood analysis to compare measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectra with predictions from models involving cosmic strings. Adding strings to the standard case of a primordial…

We present the first fully general relativistic dynamical simulations of Abelian Higgs cosmic strings using 3+1D numerical relativity. Focusing on cosmic string loops, we show that they collapse due to their tension and can either (i)…

The recent experimental hints for a relatively heavy Higgs with a mass in the range 119-125 GeV favour supersymmetric scenarios with a large mixing in the stop mass matrix. It has been shown that this is possible in the constrained Minimal…

Topological defects form at cosmological phase transitions by the Kibble mechanism, with cosmic strings and superstrings having the most interesting phenomenology. A rigorous analysis of their astrophysical consequences is limited by the…

We consider an extension of the Standard Model, where the difference between the baryon number $B$ and the lepton number $L$ is gauged with an Abelian gauge field, in order to explain the exact conservation of $B-L$. To avoid a gauge…

Cosmic strings are a well-motivated extension to the standard cosmological model and could induce a subdominant component in the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), in addition to the standard inflationary component. The…

We study the evolution of Abelian-Higgs string networks in large-scale numerical simulations in both a static and expanding background. We measure the properties of the network by tracing the motion of the string cores, for the first time…

Planck data have been used to provide stringent new constraints on cosmic strings and other defects. We describe forecasts of the CMB power spectrum induced by cosmic strings, calculating these from network models and simulations using…

Searches for primordial gravitational waves have resulted in constraints in a large frequency range from a variety of sources. The standard Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) technique is to parameterise the tensor power spectrum in terms of…

We study the decay of cosmic string loops in the Abelian-Higgs model. We confirm earlier results that loops formed by intersections of infinite strings formed from random-field initial conditions disappear quickly, with lifetime…

We reconsider the effect of electromagnetic radiation from superconducting strings on cosmic microwave background (CMB) mu- and y-distortions and derive present (COBE-FIRAS) and future (PIXIE) constraints on the string tension, mu_s, and…

We investigate the effect of wiggly cosmic strings on the cosmic microwave background radiation anisotropy and matter power spectrum by modifying the string network model used by Albrecht et al.. We employ the wiggly equation of state for…

We study future observational constraints on cosmic string parameters from various types of next-generation experiments: direct detection of gravitational waves (GWs), pulsar timing array, and the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We…

Axion strings are horizon-size topological defects that may be produced in the early Universe. Ultra-light axion-like particles may form strings that persist to temperatures below that of big bang nucleosynthesis. Such strings have been…

We explore the use of random forest and gradient boosting, two powerful tree-based machine learning algorithms, for the detection of cosmic strings in maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), through their unique Gott-Kaiser-Stebbins…