Related papers: Topological structures, dark matter and gravitatio…
Discrete symmetries are widely imposed in particle theories. It is well-known that the spontaneous breaking of discrete symmetries leads to domain walls. Current studies of domain walls have focused on those from the spontaneous breaking of…
Theories of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking predict a strong first order cosmological phase transition: we compute the resulting signals, primordial black holes and gravitational waves. These theories employ one SM-neutral scalar,…
The existence of an extra Z' inspired from heterotic-string theory at accessible energy scales attracted considerable interest in the particle physics literature. Surprisingly, however, the construction of heterotic--string derived models…
The spontaneous breaking of an $A_4$ flavour symmetry, often used to predict leptonic mixing, can lead to the formation of domain walls which can annihilate and generate a stochastic gravitational wave background. We study this phenomenon…
We study well-motivated dark matter candidates arising from weakly-coupled hidden sectors in compactified string/$M$-theory. Imposing generic top-down constraints greatly restricts allowed candidates. By considering the possible mechanisms…
We investigated domain wall networks as a possible candidate to explain the present accelerated expansion of the universe. We discuss various requirements that any stable lattice of frustrated walls must obey and propose a class of `ideal'…
If the vacuum manifold of a field theory has the appropriate topological structure, the theory admits topological structures analogous to the D-branes of string theory, in which defects of one dimension terminate on other defects of higher…
Are topological solitons elementary or composites? We answer this question by drawing up a corpuscular formalism in which solitons are coherent states of quantum constituents. This naturally leads to a functional integral representation, in…
Supersymmetric grand unification based on $SO(10)$ is one of the most attractive paradigms in physics beyond the Standard Model. Inspired by the recent NANOGrav signal, we discuss the implications of detecting a stochastic gravitational…
Recent developments in string inspired models of inflation suggest that D-strings are formed at the end of inflation. Within the supergravity model of D-strings there are 2(n-1) chiral fermion zero modes for a D-string of winding n. Using…
Grand unified theories can admit cosmic strings with fermion zero modes. Such zero modes result in the string being current-carrying and the formation of stable remnants, vortons. However, the string zero modes do not automaticall survive…
We consider the possibility that dark matter is stabilised by a discrete $Z_2$ symmetry which arises from a subgroup of a $U(1)'$ gauge symmetry, spontaneously broken by integer charged scalars, and under which the chiral quarks and leptons…
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…
We study the stochastic gravitational wave background sourced by a network of cosmic superstrings and demonstrate that incorporating higher-mass string species, beyond the fundamental string, is crucial for accurately modelling the…
We explore the irreducible cosmological implications of a singlet real scalar field. Our focus is on theories with an approximate and spontaneously broken $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry where quasi-stable domain walls can form at early times. This…
The gravitational wave (GW) signals emitted by a network of cosmic strings are reexamined in view of the possible formation of a network of cosmic superstrings at the end of brane inflation. The reconnection probability $p$ of intersecting…
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…
We study the stability of supersymmetry breaking vacuum in the presence of cosmic strings arising in the messenger sector. For certain ranges of the couplings, the desired supersymmetry breaking vacua become unstable against decay into…
We study the formation of black strings from a gravitational collapse of cylindrical dust clouds in the three-dimensional low-energy string theory. New junction conditions for the dilaton as well as two junction conditions for metrics and…
We study linear massive scalar charged perturbations of Topological Stars in the fuzzball and in the black hole (Black String) regimes. The objects that naturally couple to the electric 3-form field strength of these solutions are charged…