Related papers: The thin string limit of Cosmic Strings coupled to…
Equations of motion of null cosmic strings near black holes, or other massive sources, are solved exactly in the weak field approximation. The stress-energy tensor of a null string in a curved spacetime is introduced and used to show how…
We study the connection between $N=2$ supersymmetry and a topological bound in a two-Higgs-doublet system with an $SU(2)\times U(1)_Y\times U(1)_{Y^{\prime}}$ gauge group. We derive the Bogomol'nyi equations from supersymmetry…
We show that if a cosmic string exists, it may be identified through characteristic diffraction pattern in the energy spectrum of the observed signal. In particular, if the string is on the line of sight, the wave field is shown to fit the…
We compare the anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background radiation measured by the COBE experiment to the predictions of cosmic strings. We use an analytic model for the $\Delta T/T$ power spectrum that is based on our previous…
New physics beyond the Standard Model can give rise to stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds, for example through cosmic strings. In this way, gravitational-wave searches with pulsar-timing arrays as well as existing and future laser…
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…
We search for stochastic gravitational wave background emitted from cosmic strings using the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array data over 15 years. While we find that the common power-law excess revealed by several pulsar timing array experiments…
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…
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…
An implicit, fully characteristic, numerical scheme for solving the field equations of a cosmic string coupled to gravity is described. The inclusion of null infinity as part of the numerical grid allows us to apply suitable boundary…
The string-dominated universe locally resembles an open universe, and fits dynamical measures of power spectra, cluster abundances, redshift distortions, lensing constraints, luminosity and angular diameter distance relations and microwave…
We briefly review three aspects of string cosmology: (1) the ``stochastic'' approach to the pre-big bang scenario, (2) the presence of chaos in the generic cosmological solutions of the tree-level low-energy effective actions coming out of…
In this paper we study the effect of the magnetic field in string cosmology for a spatially homogenous and anisotropic Bianchi type -V space-time model. In order to study the effect of magnetic field, the standard form of the energy…
We present a simple sandwich gravitational wave of the Robinson-Trautman family. This is interpreted as representing a shock wave with a spherical wavefront which propagates into a Minkowski background minus a wedge. (i.e. the background…
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…
We use analytic calculations of the post-recombination gravitational effects of cosmic strings to estimate the resulting CMB power spectrum, bispectrum and trispectrum. We place a particular emphasis on multipole regimes relevant for…
In this work we raise the question whether nonsymmetric gravity and string theory are related. We start making the observation, that the gravitational field $ g_{\mu\nu}$ and the nonsymmetric gauge field $ A_{\mu\nu}$ arising in the low…
Cosmic strings are one-dimensional topological defects which could have been formed in the early stages of our Universe. They triggered a lot of interest, mainly for their cosmological implications: they could offer an alternative to…
Particle emission, in addition to gravitational radiation from cosmic string loops, affects the resulting loop distribution and hence the corresponding observational consequences of cosmic strings. Here we focus on two models in which loops…
In General Relativity, cosmic strings are well known to produce a static, locally flat spacetime with a wedge removed. If the tension exceeds a critical value, the deficit angle becomes larger than $ 2\pi $, leading to a compact exterior…