Metastable cosmic strings

Buchmuller, Wilfried; Domcke, Valerie; Schmitz, Kai

doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2023/11/020

Metastable cosmic strings

Jul 10, 2023

Published in:

JCAP 11 (2023) 020

Published: Nov 8, 2023

e-Print:

2307.04691 [hep-ph]

DOI:

10.1088/1475-7516/2023/11/020

Report number:

CERN-TH-2023-118,
MS-TP-23-37,
DESY-23-117

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Abstract: (IOP)

Many symmetry breaking patterns in grand unified theories (GUTs) give rise to cosmicstrings that eventually decay when pairs of GUT monopoles spontaneously nucleate along the stringcores. These strings are known as metastable cosmic strings and have intriguing implications forparticle physics and cosmology. In this article, we discuss the current status of metastablecosmic strings, with a focus on possible GUT embeddings and connections to inflation, neutrinos,and gravitational waves (GWs). The GW signal emitted by a network of metastable cosmic strings inthe early universe differs, in particular, from the signal emitted by topologically stable stringsby a suppression at low frequencies. Therefore, if the underlying symmetry breaking scale is closeto the GUT scale, the resulting GW spectrum can be accessible at current ground-basedinterferometers as well as at future space-based interferometers, such as LISA, and at the sametime account for the signal in the most recent pulsar timing data sets. Metastable cosmic stringsthus nourish the hope that future GW observations might shed light on fundamental physics close tothe GUT scale.

Note:

typo in normalization of S corrected, results unchanged

Cosmic strings
domain walls
monopoles
particle physics - cosmology connection
primordial gravitational waves (theory)
scale: grand unified theory
symmetry breaking: scale
frequency: low
cosmic string
string

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