Related papers: Microphysics of SO(10) Cosmic Strings
Non-Abelian global strings are expected to form during the chiral phase transition. They have orientational zero modes in the internal space, associated with the vector-like symmetry SU(N)_{L+R} broken in the presence of strings. The…
We review recent simulations of the formation of a particular class of non-topological defects known as semilocal strings during a phase transition. Semilocal strings have properties that are intermediate between topological cosmic strings…
We investigate the region of restored electroweak symmetry around a superconducting cosmic string coupled to the Weinberg-Salam model with an extra Higgs doublet. We show that the presence of the extra Higgs fields, and in particular their…
A solution of the standard electroweak theory with a single lepton family is constructed, consisting of a cosmic string and a fermion condensate within its core. The stability of this system to small perturbations is examined, and it is…
We study the scenario of electroweak baryogenesis mediated by nonsuperconducting cosmic strings. This idea relies upon electroweak symmetry being restored in a region around the core of the topological defect so that, within this region,…
We investigate the microphysics of supersymmetric cosmic strings. In particular we focus on the vortices admitted by N=1 supersymmetric abelian Higgs models. We find the vortex solutions and demonstrate that the two simplest supersymmetric…
Using the formalism developed in a previous paper we analyze the cosmological implications of our conclusions concerning the scaling behaviour of a network of cosmic strings, in particular the idea that once gravitational back-reaction…
We show that there exist massive perturbative states of the ten dimensional Green-Schwarz closed superstring that are stabilized against collapse due to presence of fermionic zero modes on its worldsheet. The excited fermionic degrees of…
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…
We review a class of non-topological defects in the standard electroweak model, and their implications. Starting with the semilocal string, which provides a counterexample to many well known properties of topological vortices, we discuss…
The scattering of fermions from the abelian string arising during the phase transition $SO(10) \rightarrow SU(5) \times Z_2$ induced by the Higgs in the 126 representation is studied. Elastic cross-sections and baryon number violating…
Flat directions are a generic feature of the scalar potential in supersymmetric gauge field theories. They can arise, for example, from D-terms associated with an extra abelian gauge symmetry. Even when supersymmetry is broken softly, there…
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 explore a variety of composite topological structures that arise from the spontaneous breaking of $SO(10)$ to $SU(3)_c \times U(1)_{em}$ via one of its maximal subgroups $SU(5) \times U(1)_\chi$, $SU(4)_c \times SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R$,…
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…
Electroweak baryogenesis has become a topic of much recent activity [1]. Here we discuss a new scenario which has the advantage of being insensitive to the order of the electroweak phase transition. We briefly review a mechanism [2] using…
In this paper we describe a new type of topological defect, called a homilia string, which is stabilized via interactions with the string network. Using analytical and numerical techniques, we investigate the stability and dynamics of…
In this thesis we investigate the microphysics of cosmic strings in non-minimal quantum field theories. In particular we consider theories in which fermion fields couple to the strings, and those with larger symmetry groups, such as grand…
We provide a thorough exposition, including technical and numerical details, of previously published results on the quantum stabilization of cosmic strings. Stabilization occurs through the coupling to a heavy fermion doublet in a reduced…
In this paper, we analyze numerically the behaviour of the solutions corresponding to a non-Abelian cosmic string in the framework of the Starobinsky model, i.e. where $f(R)=R + \zeta R^2$. We perform the calculations for both an…