Related papers: Signatures of Primordial Energy Injection from Axi…
We study early and late time signatures of both QCD axion strings and hyperlight axion strings (axiverse strings). We focus on charge deposition onto axion strings from electromagnetic fields and subsequent novel neutralizing mechanisms due…
Axions are produced during a period of dilaton-driven inflation by amplification of quantum fluctuations. We show that for some range of string cosmology parameters and some range of axion masses, primordial axions may constitute a large…
We study axion strings of hyperlight axions coupled to photons. Hyperlight axions -- axions lighter than Hubble at recombination -- are a generic prediction of the string axiverse. These axions strings produce a distinct quantized…
Axion-like particles may form a network of cosmic strings in the Universe today that can rotate the plane of polarization of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons. Future CMB observations with improved sensitivity might detect this…
Measuring spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is attracting considerable attention as a probe of high energy particle physics in the cosmological context, since PIXIE and PRISM have recently been proposed. In this…
The current cosmological constraints on a dark matter axion are reviewed. We describe the basic mechanisms by which axions are created in the early universe, both in the standard thermal scenario in which axion strings form and in…
The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) fluctuations at very small angular scales (less than $10'$) induced by matter sources are computed in a simplified way. The result corrects a previous formula appearing in the literature. The small…
We explore the cosmological consequences of the superconductivity of QCD axion strings. Axion strings can support a sizeable chiral electric current and charge, which alters their early universe dynamics. Shrinking axion string loops can…
Primordial decays of string theory moduli at z \sim 10^{12} naturally generate a dark radiation Cosmic Axion Background (CAB) with 0.1 - 1 keV energies. This CAB can be detected through axion-photon conversion in astrophysical magnetic…
In this talk, I review briefly a scenario for the evolution of a string-inspired cosmological model, in which condensates of primordial gravitational waves (GW), formed at the very early eras after the Big Bang, are considered responsible…
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…
Cosmic strings are linear concentrations of energy that form whenever phase transitions in the early universe break axial symmetries as originally shown by Kibble. They are the result of frustrated order in the quantum fields responsible…
The predictions of the inflationary LCDM paradigm match today's high-precision measurements of the cosmic microwave background anisotropy extremely well. The same data put tight limits on other sources of anisotropy. Cosmic strings are a…
Cosmic string loops contain cusps which decay by emitting bursts of particles. A significant fraction of the released energy is in the form of photons. These photons are injected non-thermally and can hence cause spectral distortions of the…
Electromagnetic radiation from superconducting cosmic string loops can reionize neutral hydrogen in the universe at very early epochs, and affect the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization correlation functions at…
Axions are hypothetical particles that may explain the observed dark matter (DM) density and the non-observation of a neutron electric dipole moment. An increasing number of axion laboratory searches are underway worldwide, but these…
We discuss the possible sources of dark matter axions in the early universe. In the standard thermal scenario, an axion string network forms at the Peccei-Quinn phase transition $T\sim \fa$ and then radiatively decays into a cosmological…
Pre-big bang cosmology predicts tiny first-order dilaton and metric perturbations at very large scales. Here we discuss the possibility that other -- more copiously generated -- perturbations may act, at second order, as scalar seeds of…
The production of a primordial stochastic gravitational-wave background by processes occuring in the early Universe is expected in a broad range of models. Observing this background would open a unique window onto the Universe's…
Axions have long been considered plausible candidates for dark matter. The axion dark matter emitted from cosmic strings after the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry breaking in the early Universe was extensively simulated. In this work, we study…