Related papers: The Fate of Cosmic String Zero Modes
Topological objects resulting from symmetry breakdown may be either stable or metastable depending on the pattern of symmetry breaking. However, if they acquire zero-energy modes of fermions, and in the process acquire non-integer fermionic…
Theories of the cosmological constant fall into two classes, those in which the vacuum energy is fixed by the fundamental theory and those in which it is adjustable in some way. For each class we discuss key challenges. The string theory…
Cosmic (super)strings offer promising ways to test ideas about the early universe and physics at high energies. While in field theory constructions their tension is usually assumed to be constant (or at most slowly-varying), this is often…
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…
In this article we study in detail the supersymmetric structures that underlie the system of fermionic zero modes around a superconducting cosmic string. Particularly, we extend the analysis existing in the literature on the one dimensional…
We consider theories with a spontaneously broken gauged R-symmetry, which can only occur in supergravity models. These give rise to cosmic R-strings upon which gravitino zero modes can exist. We construct solutions to the Rarita-Schwinger…
The dynamical evolution of superconducting cosmic string loops with specific equations of state describing timelike and spacelike currents is studied numerically. This analysis extends previous work in two directions: first it shows results…
Exact solutions of the Einstein field equations with cosmic string and space varying cosmological constant, viz., $\Lambda= \Lambda(r)$, in the energy-momentum tensors are presented. Three cases have been studied: where variable…
A classical analysis suggests that an external magnetic field can cause trajectories of charge carriers on a superconducting domain wall or cosmic string to bend, thus expelling charge carriers with energy above the mass threshold into the…
Zero modes of strings in the abelian Higgs model are analyzed. In spite of the fact that the gauge symmetry is not broken in the string center, the corresponding zero mode is shown to exist and to see it one has to analyze carefully the…
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…
We study the cosmological constant problem in a three-dimensional N=2 supergravity theory with gauge group SU[2]_{global}xU[1]_{local}. The model we consider is known to admit string-like configurations, the so-called semi-local cosmic…
This is a pedagogical introduction to the basics of the cosmic string theory and also a review of the recent progress made with respect to the macrophysical predictions of the theory. Topics covered include, string formation and evolution,…
String theory axions appear to be promising candidates for explaining cosmological constant via quintessence. In this paper, we study conditions on the string compactifications under which axion quintessence can happen. For sufficiently…
A mechanism for suppressing the cosmological constant is developed, based on an analogy with a superconducting phaseshift in which free fermions coupled perturbatively to a weak gravitational field are in an unstable false vacuum state. The…
String gas cosmology is an approach towards studying the effects of superstring theory on early universe cosmology which is based on new symmetries and new degrees of freedom of string theory. Within this context, it appears possible to…
A synthetic report of the advances in the study of classical and quantum string dynamics in curved backgrounds is provided, namely: the new feature of multistring solutions; the effect of a cosmological constant and of spacial curvature on…
Cosmic strings can arise in hidden sector models with a spontaneously broken Abelian symmetry group. We have studied the couplings of the Standard Model fields to these so-called dark strings in the companion paper. Here we survey the…
The chiral quark condensate of QCD, which spontaneously breaks the anomalous axial symmetry, gives rise to axionic type global string-wall systems. If a Peccei-Quinn type axion exists in the theory, the axionic strings are in general…
In this talk I will discuss the role of finite temperature quantum corrections in string cosmology and show that they can lead to a stabilization mechanism for the volume moduli. I will show that from the higher dimensional perspective this…