Related papers: Metastable cosmic strings
We show that metastable cosmic strings break at early times, either via finite-temperature effects or by attaching to pre-existing monopoles during network percolation. The resulting segments can be initially super-horizon in size and thus…
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 show that GUT cosmic strings generically form after inflation if a {\it non-inert} symmetry breaks after inflation; they form irrespectively of the inflationary scenario and in both supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric theories.
This is a short review of string cosmology. We wish to connect string-scale physics as closely as possible to observables accessible to current or near-future experiments. Our possible best hope to do so is a description of inflation in…
Appearance of cosmic strings in the early Universe is a common manifestation of new physics typically linked to some high energy scale. In this paper, we discuss a different situation, where a model underlying cosmic string formation is…
A standard expectation of primordial cosmological inflation is that it dilutes all relics created before its onset to unobservable levels. We present a counterexample to this expectation by demonstrating that a network of cosmic strings…
Motivated by the direct discovery of gravitational waves (GWs) from black holes and neutron stars, there is a growing interest in investigating GWs from other sources. Among them, GWs from cosmic strings are particularly fascinating since…
Cosmic strings are topological defects which can be formed in GUT-scale phase transitions in the early universe. They are also predicted to form in the context of string theory. The main mechanism for a network of Nambu-Goto cosmic strings…
Metastable strings can arise from a two-step symmetry breaking chain of the type $SU(2) \to U(1) \to 1$.They can decay through quantum tunneling by nucleating a monopole-antimonopole pair, and are prominent candidates for explaining the…
A synthesis of previous work done on the microscopic structure of cosmic strings in realistic models is made and reveals that strings are expected to be not only superconducting in the sense of Witten, but also generically current-carrying,…
Global cosmic strings are predicted in many motivated extensions to the Standard Model of particle physics, with close connections to axion dark matter physics. Recent studies suggest that, although subdominant relative to Goldstone…
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…
Recent observations by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) such as NANOGrav, EPTA, PPTA, and CPTA suggest the presence of nanohertz stochastic gravitational wave background (GWB). While such signals could be explained by gravitational waves from a…
Cosmic strings are generic cosmological predictions of many extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics, such as a $U(1)^\prime$ symmetry breaking phase transition in the early universe or remnants of superstring theory. Unlike…
The topic of cosmic strings provides a bridge between the physics of the very small and the very large. They are predicted by some unified theories of particle interactions. If they exist, they may help to explain some of the largest-scale…
We perform a phenomenological comparison of the gravitational wave (GW) spectrum expected from cosmic gauge string networks and superstring networks comprised of multiple string types. We show how violations of scaling behavior and the…
Cosmic strings represent an attractive source of gravitational waves (GWs) from the early Universe. However, numerical computation of the GW signal from cosmic strings requires the evaluation of complicated integral and sum expressions,…
The spontaneous breaking of $SO(10)$ grand unified symmetry to $SU(3)_c \times SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y \times U(1)_\chi$ yields the GUT monopole as well as a comparably heavy $U(1)_\chi$ monopole which also carries $U(1)_Y$ flux. A metastable…
We study the stability of cosmic string wakes against the disruption by the dominant Gaussian fluctuations which are present in cosmological models. We find that for a string tension given by $G \mu = 10^{-7}$ wakes remain locally stable…
Grand Unified Theories (GUT) predict proton decay as well as the formation of cosmic strings which can generate gravitational waves. We determine which non-supersymmetric $SO(10)$ breaking chains provide gauge unification in addition to a…