Related papers: The Structure of Cosmic String Wakes (Proceedings)
Vector perturbations sourced by topological defects can generate rotations in the lensing of background galaxies. This is a potential smoking gun for the existence of defects since rotation generates a curl-like component in the weak…
It is shown that it is possible for bound fermions on a cosmic string to form a superconducting state. Due to the attractive force between them, particles moving in opposite directions along the string form bound pairs. This involves a…
This is a short review on strings in curved spacetimes. We start by recalling the classical and quantum string behaviour in singular plane waves backgrounds. We then report on the string behaviour in cosmological spacetimes (FRW, de Sitter,…
We investigate scaling and correlations of the energy and momentum in an evolving network of cosmic strings in Minkowski space. These quantities are of great interest, as they must be understood before accurate predictions for the power…
We argue that the light particles in string theory obey an effective quantum mechanics modified by the inclusion of a quantum-gravitational friction term, induced by unavoidable couplings to unobserved massive string states in the…
Motivated by the fact that cosmological perturbations of inflationary quantum origin were born Gaussian, the search for non-Gaussianities in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies is considered as the privileged probe of…
We calculate the density and gravitational wave spectrums generated in a version of string cosmology termed pre-big bang scenario. The large scale structures are originated from quantum fluctuations of the metric and dilaton field during a…
Cosmic strings are topological defects which can be formed in GUT-scale phase transitions in the early universe. They are also predicted to form in the context of string theory. The main mechanism for a network of Nambu-Goto cosmic strings…
The cosmic string scenario in an open universe is developed -- including the equations of motion, a model of network evolution, the large angular scale CMB temperature anisotropy, and the power spectrum of density fluctuations produced by…
String cosmology models predict a stochastic cosmic background of gravitational waves with a characteristic spectrum. I describe the background, present astrophysical and cosmological bounds on it, and outline how it may be possible to…
In this paper, we describe the results of N-body simulation runs, which include a cosmic string wake of tension $G\mu= 4 \times 10^{-8}$ on top of the usual $\Lambda CDM$ fluctuations. To obtain a higher resolution of the wake in the…
Cosmic strings have gained a great interest, since they are formed in a large class of brane inflationary models. The most interesting story is that cosmic strings in brane models are distinguished in future cosmological observations. If…
We investigate the anisotropies of the stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB) produced by cosmic strings associated with the spontaneous U(1) symmetry breaking of Grand Unified Theory, which happens at the onset of inflation. The…
Chiral cosmic strings naturally arise in many particle physics models, in particular in supersymmetric theories with a D-term. These strings have a single fermion zero mode in the core. We derive the general equation of motion for such…
We study the formation of gravitating global strings through quantum mechanical tunneling. The instantons that describe the nucleation process are characterized by two parameters: the string core thickness and its gravitational backreaction…
We obtain the solution that corresponds to a screwed superconducting cosmic string (SSCS) in the framework of a general scalar-tensor theory including torsion. We investigate the metric of the SSCS in Brans-Dicke theory with torsion and…
We study the behaviour of cosmic string networks in contracting universes, and discuss some of their possible consequences. We note that there is a fundamental time asymmetry between defect network evolution for an expanding universe and a…
We investigate cosmic strings arising from a hierarchical gauge symmetry breaking sequence, $\mathrm{SU}(2) \times \mathrm{U}(1) \rightarrow \mathrm{U}(1) \times \mathrm{U}(1) \rightarrow \mathrm{U}(1)' \rightarrow \text{Nothing}$. This…
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 collisions of cosmic strings loops and the dynamics of junctions formations in expanding backgrounds are studied. The key parameter controlling the dynamics of junctions formation, the cosmic strings zipping and unzipping is the…