Related papers: Status of String Cosmology: Phenomenological Aspec…
Axion monodromy is a generic phenomenon in string compactifications. We investigate the production of gravitational-wave background from axion monodromy inflation during preheating. By performing lattice simulations using pseudo-spectral…
We consider the pre-big bang scenario with a massive axion field which starts to dominate energy density when oscillating in an instanton-induced potential and subsequently reheats the universe as it decays into photons, thus creating…
Primordial gravitational waves provide a very important stochastic background that could be detected soon with interferometric gravitational wave antennas or indirectly via the induced patterns in the polarization anisotropies of the cosmic…
Physical scenarios, leading to highly energetic stochastic gravitational waves backgrounds (for frequencies ranging from the $\mu$Hz up to the GHz) are examined. In some cases the typical amplitude of the logarithmic energy spectrum can be…
This is a short review of string cosmology. We wish to connect string-scale physics as closely as possible to observables accessible to current or near-future experiments. Our possible best hope to do so is a description of inflation in…
An exploratory study of the cosmology of moduli in string theory. Moduli are argued to be natural inflaton fields and lead to a robust inflationary cosmology in which inflation takes place at the top of domain walls. The amplitude of…
Superstring theory, models with extra dimensions and other SUSY models generically predict that the coupling constants are in fact vacuum expectation values of fields like the dilaton, moduli etc. Assuming some of these fields are light…
We discuss the production of multi-photons squeezed states induced by the time variation of the (Abelian) gauge coupling constant in a string cosmological context. Within a fully quantum mechanical approach we solve the time evolution of…
This is a short review on strings in curved spacetimes. We start by recalling the classical and quantum string behaviour in singular plane waves backgrounds. We then report on the string behaviour in cosmological spacetimes (FRW, de Sitter,…
In these lectures the present status of the so-called standard cosmological model, based on the hot Big Bang theory and the inflationary paradigm is reviewed. Special emphasis is given to the origin of the cosmological perturbations we see…
In a previous paper [1] we considered the possibility that (within the early-radiation epoch) there has been (also) a short period of a significant presence of cosmic strings. During this radiation-plus-strings stage the Universe…
We analyze the gravitational wave signatures of a network of metastable cosmic strings. We consider the case of cosmic string instability to breakage, with no primordial population of monopoles. This scenario is well motivated from GUT and…
Attempts to connect string theory with astrophysical observation are hampered by a jargon barrier, where an intimidating profusion of orientifolds, Kahler potentials, etc. dissuades cosmologists from attempting to work out the astrophysical…
A stochastic background of gravitational waves is expected to arise from a superposition of a large number of unresolved gravitational-wave sources of astrophysical and cosmological origin. It is expected to carry unique signatures from the…
We study the evolution of cosmic strings taking into account the frictional force due to the surrounding radiation. We consider small perturbations on straight strings, oscillation of circular loops and small perturbations on circular…
A general family of charge-current carrying cosmic string models is investigated. In the special case of circular configurations in arbitrary axially symmetric gravitational and electromagnetic backgrounds the dynamics is determined by…
Spectra of the stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds from cosmic strings are calculated and compared with present and future experimental limits. Background spectra are calculated numerically for dimensionless string tensions G mu/c^2…
We consider an alternative approach for the computation of the stochastic gravitational wave background generated by small loops produced throughout the cosmological evolution of cosmic string networks and use it to derive an analytical…
The cosmic string is a useful probe of the early Universe and may give us a clue to physics at high energy scales where any artificial particle accelerators cannot reach. Although one of the most promising tools is the cosmic microwave…
Recent data suggest that the Universe could be positively curved. Combined with an inflationary stage, this might lead to a curvature bounce instead of the Big Bang. The background evolution is presented, as a function of the parameters…