Related papers: Metastable cosmic strings
Cosmic strings are important remnants of early-Universe phase transitions. We show that they can be probed by Gravitational Waves (GWs) from compact binary mergers. If such chirping GW passes by a cosmic string, it is gravitationally lensed…
We investigate the stability of the electroweak Z-string at high temperatures. Our results show that while finite temperature corrections can improve the stability of the Z-string, their effect is not strong enough to stabilize the Z-string…
In these lectures, I review the current status of cosmic strings and cosmic superstrings. I first discuss topological defects in the context of Grand Unified Theories, focusing in particular in cosmic strings arising as gauge theory…
We investigate the cosmological consequences of particle physics theories that admit stable loops of superconducting cosmic string - {\it vortons}. General symmetry breaking schemes are considered, in which strings are formed at one energy…
If cosmic strings are formed in the early universe, their associated loops emit gravitational waves during the whole cosmic history and contribute to the stochastic gravitational wave background at all frequencies. We provide a new estimate…
The spontaneous breaking of $SO(10)$ via flipped $SU(5)$ to the Standard Model yields a novel scenario in which the superheavy topologically stable GUT monopole carrying a single unit ($2\pi/e$) of Dirac magnetic charge emerges from the…
Cosmic strings, a hot subject in the 1980's and early 1990's, lost its appeal when it was found that it leads to inconsistencies in the power spectrum of the measured cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies. However,…
Cosmic strings, theoretical one-dimensional topological defects from the early universe, provide a valuable opportunity for exploring dark matter (DM) production and gravitational wave (GW) emission. Our study investigates the production of…
Cosmic strings are predicted in many models beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. In models which admit strings, a network of strings will inevitably be formed in a phase transition in the early universe and will persist to the…
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…
We show that stable local cosmic strings are a generic prediction of supersymmetric models where supersymmetry is broken at scales within a few orders of magnitude of the weak scale and is fed down to the observable sector by gauge…
Cosmic strings are linear concentrations of energy that may be formed at phase transitions in the very early universe. At one time they were thought to provide a possible origin for the density inhomogeneities from which galaxies eventually…
When moduli roll in the early universe, all physical scales - including string tensions - simultaneously evolve. The dynamics of cosmic string loops with time-varying tension can produce cosmic string loop trackers in which most of the…
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…
The Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background (SGWB) from cosmic superstrings offers one of the few known possibilities to test String Theory within current experimental reach. However, in order to be compatible with the existing…
Cosmic strings are predicted by many field-theory models, and may have been formed at a symmetry-breaking transition early in the history of the universe, such as that associated with grand unification. They could have important…
Motivated by the fact that cosmological perturbations of inflationary quantum origin were born Gaussian, the search for non-Gaussianities in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies is considered as the privileged probe of…
Cosmic strings are topological defects possibly formed in the early Universe, which may be observable due to their gravitational effects on the cosmic microwave background radiation or gravitational wave experiments. To this effect it is…
Junctions on cosmic string loops give rise to the proliferation of sharp kinks. We study the effect of this proliferation on the gravitational wave (GW) signals emitted from string networks with junctions, assuming a scaling solution. We…
The symmetry breaking of grand unified gauge groups in the early Universe often leaves behind relic topological defects such as cosmic strings, domain walls, or monopoles. For some symmetry breaking chains, hybrid defects can form where…