Observational constraints on cosmic string production during brane inflation
Apr, 2003
16 pages
Published in:
- Phys.Rev.D 68 (2003) 023506,
- Phys.Rev.D 73 (2006) 089904 (erratum)
e-Print:
- hep-th/0304188 [hep-th]
View in:
Citations per year
Abstract: (arXiv)
Overall, brane inflation is compatible with the recent analysis of the WMAP data. Here we explore the constraints of WMAP and 2dFGRS data on the various brane inflationary scenarios. Brane inflation naturally ends with the production of cosmic strings, which may provide a way to distinguish these models observationally. We argue that currently available data cannot exclude a non-negligible contribution from cosmic strings definitively. We perform a partial statistical analysis of mixed models that include a sub-dominant contribution from cosmic strings. Although the data favor models without cosmic strings, we conclude that they cannot definitively rule out a cosmic-string-induced contribution of to the observed temperature, polarization and galaxy density fluctuations. These results imply that , where is a dimensionless parameter related to the interstring distance, and measures the importance of perturbations induced by cosmic strings. We argue that, conservatively, the data available currently still permit . Precision measurements sensitive to the B-mode polarization produced by vector density perturbation modes driven by the string network could provide evidence for these models. Accurate determinations of , the scalar fluctuation index, could also distinguish among various brane inflation models.Note:
- 16 pages, 4 figures. A few errors in the computer code used to calculated CMB anistotropy from strings are fixed, resulting in a somewhat tighter bound on G\mu and an enhanced B-mode polarization. Details of the corrected errors and their implications can be found in astro-ph/0604141
- 98.80.Cq
- astrophysics: string
- inflation
- membrane model
- cosmic background radiation
- cosmic radiation: polarization
- statistical analysis
- perturbation: adiabatic
- numerical calculations: interpretation of experiments
References(67)
Figures(0)