Related papers: Has NANOGrav found first evidence for cosmic strin…
ABSRACT: We review recent progress on testing the hypothesis of the existence of cosmic string perturbations in microwave background maps. Using an analytical model for the string network we show that the predicted amplitude and spectrum of…
After large galaxies merge, their central supermassive black holes are expected to form binary systems whose orbital motion generates a gravitational wave background (GWB) at nanohertz frequencies. Searches for this background utilize…
Precision pulsar timing at the level of tens to hundreds of nanoseconds allows detection of nanohertz gravitational waves (GWs) from supermassive binary black holes (SMBBHs) at the cores of merging galaxies and, potentially, from exotic…
Gravitational wave signatures from cosmic strings are analyzed numerically. Cosmic string networks form during phase transistions in the early universe and these networks of long cosmic strings break into loops that radiate energy in the…
We derive a general procedure for calculating the gravitational wave background (GWB) from cosmic string loops whose typical shape evolves over time, as in gravitational backreaction. Using the results of a large-scale study of numerical…
We perform a Bayesian search in the latest Pulsar Timing Array (PTA) datasets for a stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background sourced by curvature perturbations at scales $10^5~\text{Mpc}^{-1}\lesssim k\lesssim 10^8~\text{Mpc}^{-1}$.…
We calculate the accurate spectrum of the stochastic gravitational wave background from U(1) gauge fields produced by axion dark matter. The explosive production of gauge fields soon invalidates the applicability of the linear analysis and…
Many symmetry breaking patterns in grand unified theories (GUTs) give rise to cosmic strings that eventually decay when pairs of GUT monopoles spontaneously nucleate along the string cores. These strings are known as metastable cosmic…
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…
Gravitational waves are predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity as well as other theories of gravity. The rotational stability of the fastest pulsars means that timing of an array of these objects can be used to detect and…
A characteristic observational signature of cosmic strings are short duration gravitational wave (GW) bursts. These have been searched for by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration, and will be searched for with LISA. We point out that…
One of the most interesting predictions of string-inspired cosmological models is the presence of a stochastic background of relic gravitational waves in the frequency band accessible to Earth-based detectors. Here we consider a ``minimal''…
The recently released data by pulsar timing array (PTA) collaborations have amassed substantial evidence corroborating the existence of a stochastic signal consistent with a gravitational-wave background at frequencies around the nanohertz…
We show that the existence of cosmic strings can be strongly constrained by the next generation of gravitational lensing surveys at radio frequencies. We focus on cosmic string loops, which simulations suggest would be far more numerous…
Time evolution of a circular cosmic string loop is investigated by numerically solving the field equations for the scalar and the gauge fields consisting of the vortex. It is shown that the result agrees with an analytic estimate based on…
The mean spectrum and burst statistics of gravitational waves produced by a cosmological population of cosmic string loops are estimated using analytic approximations, calibrated with earlier simulations. Formulas are derived showing the…
Many motivated extensions of the Standard Model predict the existence of cosmic strings. Gravitational waves originating from the dynamics of the resulting cosmic string network have the ability to probe many otherwise inaccessible…
We combine new analysis of the stochastic gravitational wave background to be expected from cosmic strings with the latest pulsar timing array (PTA) limits to give an upper bound on the energy scale of the possible cosmic string network,…
Pulsar timing arrays aim to detect nanohertz-frequency gravitational waves (GWs). A background of GWs modulates pulsar arrival times and manifests as a stochastic process, common to all pulsars, with a signature spatial correlation. Here we…
The past decade has been a transformative period for pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) and their search for nanohertz gravitational waves (GWs). This progress has been driven by collective advances in instrumentation for pulsar timing…