Induced gravitational waves, metastable cosmic strings and primordial black holes in GUTs

Sep 20, 2024
20 pages
Published in:
  • JCAP 01 (2025) 106
  • Published: Jan 24, 2025
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Abstract: (IOP)
We explore the cosmological and astrophysical implications of a realistic hybrid inflation model based on flipped SU(5). The model contains superheavy metastable cosmic strings arising from a waterfall field that encounters a limited number of e-foldings during the inflationary phase. In addition to the gravitational waves emitted by the metastable strings, there also appear scalar induced gravitational waves linked to the waterfall phase transition. These two independent sources of gravitational waves can yield a combined spectrum that is compatible with the recent PTA measurements, and with additional features that can be probed in future experiments. We also show the appearance of primordial black holes with mass on the order of 1029^{29} g from the waterfall phase transition, and with an abundance that can be tested in the gravitational lensing experiments.
Note:
  • Revised version with additional figures to appear in JCAP
  • Cosmic strings
  • domain walls
  • monopoles
  • inflation
  • particle physics - cosmology connection
  • primordial black holes