Related papers: Erasure of Strings and Vortexes

This essay presents a critical evaluation of the concepts of string theory and its impact on particle physics. The point of departure is a historical review of four decades of ST within the broader context of six decades of failed attempts…

We study the effects of friction on the scaling evolution of string networks in condensed matter and cosmological contexts. We derive a generalized `one-scale' model with the string correlation length $L$ and velocity $v$ as dynamical…

Spontaneous particle-pair formation is a fundamental phenomenon in nature. It can, for example, appear when the potential energy between two particles increases with separation, as if they were connected by a tense string. Beyond a critical…

The formalism of matrix product states is used to perform a numerical study of 1+1 dimensional QED -- also known as the (massive) Schwinger model -- in the presence of an external static `quark' and `antiquark'. We obtain a detailed picture…

The formation of topological defects during continuous phase transitions exhibits nonequilibrium universality. While the Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) predicts universal scaling of point-like defect numbers under slow driving, the…

The properties of cosmic strings have been investigated in detail for their implications in early-universe cosmology. Although many variations of the basic structure have been discovered, with implications for both the microscopic and…

A solution of Einstein equations is obtained for our four-dimensional world as an intersection of a wall and a string-like defect in seven-dimensional spacetime with a negative cosmological constant. A matter energy-momentum tensor…

I report on recent numerical simulations of the simplest field theory with cosmic string solutions, the Abelian Higgs model. We find that random networks of string quickly converge to a scaling solution in which the network scale length…

Topological defects are ubiquitous in condensed-matter physics but only hypothetical in the early universe. In spite of this, even an indirect evidence for one of these cosmic objects would revolutionize our vision of the cosmos. We give…

In models of spacetime that are the product of a four-dimensional spacetime with an ``extra'' dimension, there is the possibility that the extra dimension will collapse to zero size, forming a singularity. We ask whether this collapse is…

This paper revisits the problem of the string decay contribution to the axion cosmological energy density. We show that this contribution is proportional to the average relative increase when axion strings decay of a certain quantity…

We investigate the nature of ordinary cosmic vortices in some scalar-tensor extensions of gravity. We find solutions for which the dilaton field condenses inside the vortex core. These solutions can be interpreted as raising the degeneracy…

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…

Enforcing the spacetime of supermassive cosmic strings to satisfy the symmetry of a gravitational topological defect, that is a spacetime kink, it is shown that the energy of these strings becomes quantized so that only defects whose…

We report that axions and photons exhibit instability in the presence of cosmic strings that are carrying magnetic flux in their core. The strength of the instability is determined by the symmetry breaking scale of the cosmic string theory.…

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…

Beginning with a review of the arguments leading to the so-called c=1 barrier in the continuum formulation of noncritical string theory, the pathology is then exhibited in a discretized version of the theory, formulated through dynamical…

The deep imaging of the field of an observed lensing event by a cosmic string reveals many additional lensing events. We study the statistics of such string lensing. We derive explicit expressions for the distributions of image separations…

Linear defects are generic in continuous media. In quantum systems they appear as topological line defects which are associated with a circulating persistent current. In relativistic quantum vacuum they are known as cosmic strings, in…

We study string theory in supersymmetric time-dependent backgrounds. In the framework of general relativity, supersymmetry for spacetimes without flux implies the existence of a covariantly constant null vector, and a relatively simple form…