English

Kinks and small-scale structure on cosmic strings

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2009-12-31 v2 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We discuss some hitherto puzzling features of the small-scale structure of cosmic strings. We argue that kinks play a key role, and that an important quantity to study is their sharpness distribution. In particular we suggest that for very small scales the two-point correlation function of the string tangent vector varies linearly with the separation and not as a fractional power, as proposed by Polchinski and Rocha [Phys. Rev. D 74, 083504 (2006)]. However, our results are consistent with theirs, because the range of scales to which this linearity applies shrinks as evolution proceeds.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0909.1960,
  title  = {Kinks and small-scale structure on cosmic strings},
  author = {E. J. Copeland and T. W. B. Kibble},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0909.1960},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

10pages, revtex file, minor errors corrected

R2 v1 2026-06-21T13:44:56.400Z