Related papers: Metastable Strings and Gravitational Waves in One-…
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…
Metastable cosmic strings appear in models of new physics with a two-step symmetry breaking $G\to H\to 1$, where $\pi_1(H)\neq 0$ and $\pi_1(G)=0$. They decay via the monopole-antimonopole pair creation inside. Conventionally, the breaking…
The stability of "visible" electroweak-type cosmic strings is investigated in an extension of the Standard Model (SM) by a minimal dark sector, consisting of a U(1) gauge field, broken spontaneously by a scalar. The "visible" and dark…
Cosmic strings are predicted in various extensions of the Standard Model, including grand unified theories. Depending on the symmetry-breaking pattern, they can be either topologically stable or metastable. Intriguingly, metastable strings…
Semilocal and electroweak strings are well-known to be unstable against unwinding by the condensation of the second Higgs component in their cores. A large class of current models of dark matter contains dark scalar fields coupled to the…
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…
A metastable cosmic-string network is a generic consequence of many grand unified theories (GUTs) when combined with cosmic inflation. Metastable cosmic strings are not topologically stable, but decay on cosmic time scales due to pair…
While topologically stable cosmic strings are disfavoured by the recent observation of nHz stochastic gravitational waves (GW) by Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTA), e.g., NANOGrav, cosmic metastable strings and superstrings are not. However,…
A realistic model of $SU(5) \times U(1)_{\chi}$, embedded in $SO(10)$ supersymmetric grand unified theory, is investigated for the emergence of a metastable cosmic string network. This network eventually decays via the Schwinger production…
We estimate the stochastic gravitational wave spectrum emitted from a network of cosmic strings in which the latter are effectively stable against breaking by monopole pair creation. The monopoles are produced at a higher scale from an…
Many symmetry breaking patterns in grand unified theories (GUTs) give rise to cosmic strings that eventually decay when pairs of GUT monopoles spontaneously nucleate along the string cores. These strings are known as metastable cosmic…
We analyze the gravitational wave signatures of a network of metastable cosmic strings. We consider the case of cosmic string instability to breakage, with no primordial population of monopoles. This scenario is well motivated from GUT and…
The structure of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics points toward grand unified theories (GUTs) where strong and electroweak interactions are unified in a non-Abelian GUT group. The spontaneous breaking of the GUT symmetry to the…
Spectra of the stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds from cosmic strings are calculated and compared with present and future experimental limits. Background spectra are calculated numerically for dimensionless string tensions G mu/c^2…
Metastable cosmic strings (MSCSs) are among the best-fitting explanations of the 2023 pulsar timing array (PTA) signal for gravitational waves at nanohertz frequencies. We propose the novel possibility that a network of MSCSs generating…
We discuss the appearance of topological structures from the spontaneous breaking of $E_6$ to the Standard Model via its maximal subgroup $SO(10) \times U(1)_\psi$. They include dumbbells, metastable strings, as well as domain walls bounded…
Recent observations by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) indicate a potential detection of a stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background. Metastable cosmic strings have been recognized as a possible source of the observed signals. In this…
We study cosmic strings in the complex symmetron model, a scalar-tensor theory with a spontaneously broken local $U(1)$ symmetry in low matter density regions. Using numerical simulations, we show that these strings preferentially attach to…
In the minimal standard model we discuss stability of the Z-string configuration, which includes the zero mode connected with the broken gauge symmetry. The zero mode induces charge and current on the string and gives backreaction to the…
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…