Related papers: Gravitational lensing by cosmic strings: what we l…
The wave effect in the gravitational lensing phenomenon by a straight cosmic string is investigated. The interference pattern is expressed in terms of a simple formula. We demonstrate that modulations of the interfered wave amplitude can be…
The complexity of the cosmological scenario regarding cosmic strings (CSs) stands still in the way of a complete understanding. We describe here a promising strategy for the possible detection of these elusive physical entities. It is based…
Making use of the wealth of new observational data coming from the sky it is possible to constrain particle physics theories beyond the Standard Model. One way to do this is illustrated in this article: a subset of theories admits cosmic…
Predicting signatures of string theory on cosmological observables is not sufficient. Often the observable effects string theory may impact upon the cosmological arena may equally be predicted by features of inflationary physics. The…
Although cosmic string scenario for galaxy formation is disfavored by CMB data, it is of great interest in the generation of cosmic gravitational-wave background. This research aims to develop an algorithm to extract cosmic…
The deep imaging of the field of an observed lensing event by a cosmic string reveals many additional lensing events. We study the statistics of such string lensing. We derive explicit expressions for the distributions of image separations…
We use current theoretical estimates for the density of long cosmic strings to predict the number of strong gravitational lensing events in astronomical imaging surveys as a function of angular resolution and survey area. We show that…
Cosmic strings are predicted to form kinks and cusps that travel along the string at close to the speed of light. These disturbances are radiated away as highly beamed gravitational waves that produce a burst like pulse as the cone of…
A century after observing the deflection of light emitted by distant stars during the solar eclipse of 1919, it is interesting to know the concepts emerged from the experiment and the theoretical and observational consequences for modern…
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…
Cosmic strings are topological defects possibly formed in the early Universe, which may be observable due to their gravitational effects on the cosmic microwave background radiation or gravitational wave experiments. To this effect it is…
Flat directions are a generic feature of the scalar potential in supersymmetric gauge field theories. They can arise, for example, from D-terms associated with an extra abelian gauge symmetry. Even when supersymmetry is broken softly, there…
In these lectures, I review the current status of cosmic strings and cosmic superstrings. I first discuss topological defects in the context of Grand Unified Theories, focusing in particular in cosmic strings arising as gauge theory…
This article, written for Scolarpedia, provides a brief introduction into the subject of cosmic strings, together with a review of their main properties, cosmological evolution and observational signatures.
Cosmic strings, a hot subject in the 1980's and early 1990's, lost its appeal when it was found that it leads to inconsistencies in the power spectrum of the measured cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies. However,…
We consider the femto-lensing due to a cosmic string. If a cosmic string with the deficit angle $\Delta\sim 100$ [femto-arcsec] $\sim10^{-18}$ [rad] exists around the line of sight to a gamma-ray burst, we may observe characteristic…
We present a novel approach for investigating lens phenomenology of cosmic strings in order to elaborate detection strategies in galaxy deep field images. To account for the complexity of the projected energy distribution of string networks…
Cosmic superstring loops within the galaxy microlens background point sources lying close to the observer-string line of sight. For suitable alignments, multiple paths coexist and the (achromatic) flux enhancement is a factor of two. We…
Cosmic strings provide a radically different paradigm for the formation of structure to the prevailing inflationary one. They afford some extra technical complications: for example, the calculation of the power spectrum of matter and…
The last decade has seen an enormous increase of activity in the field of gravitational lensing, mainly driven by improvements of observational capabilities. I will review the basics of gravitational lens theory, just enough to understand…