Related papers: The No-defect Conjecture: Cosmological Implication…
Setting aside anthropic arguments, there is no reason why the universe should initially favour a net expanding phase rather than one experiencing a net contraction. However, a collapsing universe containing "normal" matter will end at a…
Some aspects of the theory of cosmological perturbations from cosmic strings and other topological defects are outlined, with particular reference to a simple example: a spatially flat CDM-dominated universe. The conserved energy-momentum…
This article reviews the properties and limitations associated with the existence of particle, visual, and event horizons in cosmology in general and in inflationary universes in particular, carefully distinguishing them from `Hubble…
(To appear in Nuclear Physics B Supplements Proceedings section) This talk will explore the evolution of topological defects in an open universe. The rapid expansion of the universe in an open model slows defects and suppresses the…
If the vacuum manifold of a field theory has the appropriate topological structure, the theory admits topological structures analogous to the D-branes of string theory, in which defects of one dimension terminate on other defects of higher…
The universe is permeated by a network of filaments, sheets, and knots collectively forming a "cosmic web.'' The discovery of the cosmic web, especially through its signature of absorption of light from distant sources by neutral hydrogen…
We impose constraints on the topology of the Universe determined from a search for matched circles in the temperature anisotropy patterns of the 7-year WMAP data. We pay special attention to the sensitivity of the method to residual…
The Einstein field equations of general relativity constrain the local curvature at every point in spacetime, but say nothing about the global topology of the Universe. Cosmic microwave background anisotropies have proven to be the most…
In this paper we will discuss how cosmic strings can be used to bridge the gap between the local geometry of our spacetime model and the global topology. The primary tool is the theory of foliations and surfaces, and together with…
We compute the covariance expected between the spherical harmonic coefficients $a_{\ell m}$ of the cosmic microwave temperature anisotropy if the universe had a compact topology. For fundamental cell size smaller than the distance to the…
The intersection of string theory with cosmology is unavoidable in the early universe, and its exploration may shine light on both fields. In this thesis, three papers at this intersection are presented and reviewed, with the aim of…
An introduction to modern theories for the origin of structure in the Universe is given. After a brief review of the growth of cosmological perturbations in an expanding Universe and a summary of some important observational results, the…
The main leitmotiv of the present talk is analysis of different topological objects such as strings and domain walls in QCD. As it is well known, the standard model in general (and QCD in particular) does not support any kind of such…
We ask whether the universe can be a patchwork consisting of distinct regions of matter and antimatter. We demonstrate that, after recombination, it is impossible to avoid annihilation near regional boundaries. We study the dynamics of this…
If the universe has a nontrivial shape (topology) the sky may show multiple correlated images of cosmic objects. These correlations can be couched in terms of distance correlations. We propose a statistical quantity which can be used to…
Structure formation with topological defects is described. The main differences from inflationary models are highlighted. The results are compared with recent observations. It is concluded that all the defect models studied so far are in…
Topological defects are common in many everyday systems. In general, they appear if a symmetry is broken at a rapid phase transition. In this article, I explain why it is believed that they should have also been formed in the early universe…
The first year data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe are used to place stringent constraints on the topology of the Universe. We search for pairs of circles on the sky with similar temperature patterns along each circle. We…
The properties of the cosmic microwave background radiation provide unique constraints on cosmological models, i.e. on the content, history, and evolution of the Universe. I discuss the latest measurements of the spectral and spatial…
In this work, we consider the possibility that the dynamical dark energy hinted at by recent DESI data may be mimicked by the effects of additional components in the universe, potentially arising from topological defects. We find that the…