Related papers: Cosmology of B-L cosmic strings

In cosmological models where local cosmic strings are formed at the end of a period of inflation, the perturbations are seeded both by the defects and by the quantum fluctuations. In a subset of these models, for example those based on…

Topological defects, in particular cosmic strings, give rise to an interesting mechanism for generating the primordial perturbations in the early Universe which are required to explain the present structure. An overview of the cosmic string…

Focus of these lectures is the challenge of explaining the origin of structure in the Universe. The interplay between quantum field theory and classical general relativity has given rise to several interesting cosmological models which…

For suitable cosmological backgrounds, thermal fluctuations of a gas of strings can generate a scale-invariant spectrum of cosmological fluctuations without requiring a phase of inflationary expansion. We highlight the key points of this…

We study the effect on leptogenesis due to $B-L$ cosmic strings of a $U(1)_{B-L}$ extension of the Standard Model. The disappearance of closed loops of $B-L$ cosmic strings can produce heavy right handed neutrinos, $N_R$'s, whose…

The properties of cosmic strings have been investigated in detail for their implications in early-universe cosmology. Although many variations of the basic structure have been discovered, with implications for both the microscopic and…

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…

A class of well-motivated models of inflation end by producing cosmic strings. The current status of efforts to calculate and observe the signals from such models are outlined, with a particular emphasis on cosmic strings, and on the Cosmic…

Cosmic strings formed during inflation are expected to be either diluted over super-Hubble distances, i.e., invisible today, or to have crossed our past light cone very recently. We discuss the latter situation in which a few strings…

We show that GUT cosmic strings generically form after inflation if a {\it non-inert} symmetry breaks after inflation; they form irrespectively of the inflationary scenario and in both supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric theories.

We study cosmic strings in the complex symmetron model, a scalar-tensor theory with a spontaneously broken local $U(1)$ symmetry in low matter density regions. Using numerical simulations, we show that these strings preferentially attach to…

We put forward a new proposal for generating the baryon asymmetry of the universe by making use of the dynamics of a $\mathrm{U}(1)$ scalar field coupled to dark matter. High dark matter densities cause the $\mathrm{U}(1)$ symmetry to break…

Unified theories containing a $U(1)_{B-L}$ gauge symmetry predict heavy Majorana right-handed neutrinos. In such theories, cosmic strings may form at the $B-L$ breaking scale. If the Higgs field forming the strings is also the Higgs field…

Cosmic string networks generate cosmological perturbations actively throughout the history of the universe. Thus, the string sourced anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background is not affected by Silk damping as much as the anisotropy…

We argue that cosmic strings with high winding numbers generally form in first-order gauge symmetry breaking phase transitions, and we demonstrate this using computer simulations. These strings are heavier than single-winding strings and…

We revisit the hybrid inflation model gauged by $U(1)_{B-L}$ extension of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) in a no-scale background. Considering a single predictive framework, we study inflation, leptogenesis, gavitino…

Brane inflation is a specific realization of the inflationary universe scenario in the early universe within the brane world framework in string theory. The naturalness and robustness of this realistic scenario is explained. Its predictions…

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 motivate the study of chiral cosmic strings through a scenario of structure formation which mixes D-term inflation and strings. We then discuss some properties of chiral cosmic strings, and results regarding their evolution and possible…

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…