Related papers: From quantum gravity to gravitational waves throug…

Cusps of cosmic strings emit strong beams of high-frequency gravitational waves (GW). As a consequence of these beams, the stochastic ensemble of gravitational waves generated by a cosmological network of oscillating loops is strongly non…

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…

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,…

Detecting the parity-odd, or B-mode, polarization pattern in the cosmic microwave background radiation due to primordial gravity waves is considered to be the final observational key to confirming the inflationary paradigm. The search for…

Cosmic strings are potential gravitational wave (GW) sources that can be probed by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs). In this work we develop a detection algorithm for a GW burst from a cusp on a cosmic string, and apply it to Parkes PTA data. We…

The structure of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics points toward grand unified theories (GUTs) where strong and electroweak interactions are unified in a non-Abelian GUT group. The spontaneous breaking of the GUT symmetry to the…

We do a complete calculation of the stochastic gravitational wave background to be expected from cosmic strings. We start from a population of string loops taken from simulations, smooth these by Lorentzian convolution as a model of…

A new candidate source of gravitational radiation is described: the nearly-perfect harmonic series from individual loops of cosmic string. It is argued that theories with light cosmic strings give rise to a population of numerous long-lived…

Gravitational-wave (GW) signals offer a unique window into the dynamics of the early universe. GWs may be generated by the topological defects produced in the early universe, which contain information on the symmetry of UV physics. We…

Understanding of the signatures of cosmic string networks is limited by a large uncertainty in the sizes at which cosmic string loops form. We review cosmic string network evolution, and the gravitational signatures, with emphasis on this…

Some problems in finding a complete quantum theory incorporating gravity are discussed. One is that of giving a consistent unitary description of high-energy scattering. Another is that of giving a consistent quantum description of…

The Standard Model is the low-energy limit of a microscopic theory which includes extra dimensions and new symmetries. A part of my thesis consisted in constructing a new class of models with two extra dimensions. We showed that these…

We investigate the sources of the Hubble-induced mass for a flat direction in supersymmetric theories and show that the sign of the Hubble-induced mass generally changes just after the end of inflation. This implies that global cosmic…

String theory, as a theory containing quantum gravity, is usually thought to require more dimensions of spacetime than the usual 3+1. Here I argue on physical grounds that needing extra dimensions for strings may well be an artefact of…

The observable parameters of the electron indicate unambiguously that its gravitational background should be the Kerr-Newman solution without horizons. This background is not flat and has a non-trivial topology created by the Kerr singular…

Quantum gravity effects are traditionally tied to short distances and high energies. In this essay we argue that, perhaps surprisingly, quantum gravity may have important consequences for the phenomenology of the infrared. We center our…

Currently, string theory represents the only advanced approach to a unification of all interactions, including gravity. In spite of the more than thirty years of its existence it did not make any empirically testable predictions. And it is…

Cosmic strings are one-dimensional topological defects which could have been formed in the early stages of our Universe. They triggered a lot of interest, mainly for their cosmological implications: they could offer an alternative to…

We study cosmic strings in the complex symmetron model, a scalar-tensor theory with a spontaneously broken local $U(1)$ symmetry in low matter density regions. Using numerical simulations, we show that these strings preferentially attach to…

We perform a direct search for an isotropic stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB) produced by cosmic strings in the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array second data release. We find no evidence for such an SGWB, and therefore place $95\%$…