Related papers: Metastable cosmic strings are broken at the start
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…
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 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…
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…
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 interpret the recent NANOGrav results in terms of a stochastic gravitational wave background from metastable cosmic strings. The observed amplitude of a stochastic signal can be translated into a range for the cosmic string tension and…
We study the formation of cosmic strings by confining a stochastic magnetic field into flux tubes in a numerical simulation. We use overdamped evolution in a potential that is minimized when the flux through each face in the simulation…
We compare the spectrum of the stochastic gravitational wave background produced in several models of cosmic strings with the common-spectrum process recently reported by NANOGrav. We discuss theoretical uncertainties in computing such 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…
We consider decay of metastable topological configurations such as strings and domain walls. The transition from a state with higher energy density to a state with lower one proceeds through quantum tunneling or through thermally catalyzed…
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…
Systems of interacting networks of strings such as cosmic strings or quantum vortices can be approximated in a certain regime as an anisotropic fluid with an equation of state depending on a conserved flux. The equations for ideal…
Models of symmetry breaking in the early universe can produce networks of cosmic strings threading 't Hooft-Polyakov monopoles. In certain cases there is a larger global symmetry group and the monopoles split into so-called semipoles. These…
In this work, the current stability is discussed for cosmic strings with the bosonic superconductivity. A non-vanishing curvature of string generally induce the quantum instability of the current-carrying particle. Its decay rates are…
We systematically analyze the decay of metastable topological defects that arise from the spontaneous breakdown of gauge or global symmetries. Quantum-mechanical tunneling rates are estimated for a variety of decay processes. The decay rate…
We discuss the appearance of superconducting strings in $E_6$ grand unification, keeping track of the magnetic monopole flux that precedes the formation of the string flux tube. This flux matching ensures compatibility with the quantum…
We consider the phase transition of a string with tension $\eps_1$ to a string with a smaller tension $\eps_2$ at finite temperature. For sufficiently small temperatures the transition proceeds through thermally catalyzed quantum tunneling,…
Cosmic strings can be created in the early universe during symmetry-breaking phase transitions, such as might arise if the gauge structure of the standard model is extended by additional U(1) factors at high energies. Cosmic strings present…
We perform numerical simulations of cosmic necklaces (systems of monopoles connected to two strings each) and investigate the conditions under which monopoles annihilate. When the total monopole energy is large compared to the string…
We calculate the contribution of cosmic strings arising from a phase transition in the early universe, or cosmic superstrings arising from brane inflation, to the cosmic 21 cm power spectrum at redshifts z > 30. Future experiments can…