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Symmetry breaking can produce ``Alice'' strings, which alter scattered charges and carry monopole number and charge when twisted into loops. Alice behavior arises algebraically, when strings obstruct unbroken symmetries -- a fragile…
Symmetry breaking can produce ``Alice'' strings, which alter scattered charges and carry monopole number and charge when twisted into loops. We apply recent topological results, fixing Alice strings' stability and prescribing their twisting…
Symmetry breaking can produce ``Alice'' strings, which alter scattered charges and carry monopole number and charge when twisted into loops. Alice behavior arises algebraically, when a string's untraced Wilson loop obstructs unbroken…
Grand unified theories of fundamental forces predict that magnetic monopoles are inevitable in the Universe because the second homotopy group of the order parameter manifold is $\mathbb{Z}$. We point out that monopoles can annihilate in…
It is shown that topologically stable cosmic strings can, in fact, appear to end or to break, even in theories without monopoles. This can occur whenever the spatial topology of the universe is nontrivial. For the case of Abelian-Higgs…
A sequence of two symmetry breaking transitions in the early universe may produce monopoles whose flux is confined into two strings each, which thus assemble into "necklaces" with monopoles as beads. Such "cosmic necklaces" have been…
If the QCD axion solves the strong CP problem then light axion-like-particles (ALPs) are expected to be ubiquitous in string theory - the string axiverse. Such ALPs can be the QCD axion and constitute dark matter (DM) or radiation,…
Alice string is a topological defect with a very peculiar feature. When a defect with a monopole charge encircles an Alice string, the monopole charge changes sign. In this work, we generalize this notion to momentum space of periodic media…
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…
A variation on the abelian Higgs model, with global SU(2) x local U(1) symmetry broken to global U(1) was recently shown by Vachaspati and Achucarro to admit stable, finite energy cosmic string solutions even though the manifold of minima…
We consider the cosmological consequences of a network of superconducting cosmic strings. For strong enough current the period of friction domination never ends. Instead a plasma scaling solution is reached. We demonstrate that this gives…
A synthesis of previous work done on the microscopic structure of cosmic strings in realistic models is made and reveals that strings are expected to be not only superconducting in the sense of Witten, but also generically current-carrying,…
There exists a class of cosmic strings that turn matter into antimatter (Alice strings). In a GUT where the unbroken gauge group contains charge conjugation ($C$), such strings form when a phase transition renders $C$ a discrete symmetry.…
We show that in certain theories with topologically trivial quotient space of spontaneously broken gauge symmetry there can exist topologically stable strings that carry nonabelian gauge flux. These objects result from the ``accidental''…
String theory avoids the ultraviolet infinities that arise in trying to quantize gravity. It is also more predictive than conventional quantum field theory, one aspect of this being the way that it contributed to the emergence of the…
I report on recent numerical simulations of the simplest field theory with cosmic string solutions, the Abelian Higgs model. We find that random networks of string quickly converge to a scaling solution in which the network scale length…
We perform numerical simulations of cosmic necklaces (systems of monopoles connected to two strings each) and investigate the conditions under which monopoles annihilate. When the total monopole energy is large compared to the string…
We analyze the unlocalized ``Cheshire charge'' carried by ``Alice strings.'' The magnetic charge on a string loop is carefully defined, and the transfer of magnetic charge from a monopole to a string loop is analyzed using global…
Cosmic strings are linear concentrations of energy that form whenever phase transitions in the early universe break axial symmetries as originally shown by Kibble. They are the result of frustrated order in the quantum fields responsible…
These relics from the early universe could be the answer to many astrophysical conundrums.