Related papers: Dynamics of Cosmic Superstrings and the Overshoot …
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…
Cosmic superstrings are produced towards the end of the brane inflation. If the string tension is low enough, loops tend to be relatively long-lived. The resultant string network is expected to contain many loops which are smaller than…
The existence of a scaling evolution for cosmic string loops in an expanding universe is demonstrated for the first time by means of numerical simulations. In contrast with what is usually assumed, this result does not rely on any…
Using recent simulation results, we provide the mass and speed spectrum of cosmic string loops. This is the quantity of primary interest for many phenomenological signatures of cosmic strings, and it can be accurately predicted using…
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…
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…
We investigate the cosmological and astrophysical constraints on superconducting cosmic strings (SCSs). SCS loops emit strong bursts of electromagnetic waves, which might affect various cosmological and astrophysical observations. We take…
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…
Space-filling S-branes can mediate a transition between a contracting and an expanding universe in the Einstein frame. Following up on previous work that uncovered such bouncing solutions in the context of weakly coupled thermal…
We investigate some classical aspects of fundamental strings via numerical experiments. In particular, we study the thermodynamics of a string network within a toroidal universe, as a function of string energy density and space…
We extend the analysis of the recently obtained stringy cosmological solutions induced by thermal and quantum effects, once space-time supersymmetry is spontaneously broken by geometrical fluxes. Cases in which more than one modulus…
Cosmic superstrings are produced at the end of brane inflation. Their properties are similar to cosmic strings arising in grand unified theories. Like cosmic strings they can give rise to a primordial magnetic field, as a result of vortical…
We review applications of string theory to cosmology, from primordial times to the present-day accelerated expansion. Starting with a brief overview of cosmology and string compactifications, we discuss in detail moduli stabilisation,…
Cosmic super-strings interact generically with a tower of relatively light and/or strongly coupled Kaluza-Klein (KK) modes associated with the geometry of the internal space. In this paper, we study the production of spin-2 KK particles by…
In these lectures I discuss the possibility that superstrings of cosmic length might exist and be observable. I first review the original idea of cosmic strings arising as gauge theory solitons, and discuss in particular their network…
We demonstrate that a gas of wrapped branes in the early Universe can help resolve the cosmological Dine-Seiberg/Brustein-Steinhardt overshoot problem in the context of moduli stabilization with steep potentials in string theory. Starting…
This investigation is concerned with cosmological scenarios based on particle physics theories that give rise to superconducting cosmic strings (whose subsequent evolution may produce stable loop configurations known as vortons). Cases in…
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 study the dynamics and evolution of Nambu-Goto strings in a warped spacetime, where the warp factor is a function of the internal coordinates giving rise to a `throat' region. The microscopic equations of motion for strings in this…
We examine the spectrum of gravitational radiation emitted by a network of cosmic strings, with emphasis on the observational constraints and the opportunities for detection. The analysis improves over past work, as we use a…