Cosmic String Loops and Gravitational Radiation

Abstract

Understanding of the signatures of cosmic string networks is limited by a large uncertainty in the sizes at which cosmic string loops form. We review cosmic string network evolution, and the gravitational signatures, with emphasis on this uncertainty. We then review a recent analytic model of cosmic string networks. In combination with recent simulations, this suggests that 90% of the string goes into very small loops, at the gravitational radiation scale, and 10% into loops near the Hubble scale. We discuss cosmic string signatures in such a scenario, and the `inverse problem' of determining the microscopic cosmic string properties from observations.

26 pages, to appear in the Proceedings of the 11th Marcel Grossman meeting. v2: Additional paragraph about uncertainties in bounds (sec. 5.2)

References in corpus (5)

• Fitting CMB data with cosmic strings and inflation
• Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background from Light Cosmic Strings
• Introduction to Cosmic F- and D-Strings
• Observing cosmic string loops with gravitational lensing surveys
• Periodic Gravitational Waves From Small Cosmic String Loops

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Cosmic string loops: large and small, but not tiny
• Magnetogenesis from Cosmic String Loops
• Energy Radiation by Cosmic Superstrings in Brane Inflation
• Cosmic String Detection via Microlensing of Stars
• Cosmic strings in a space-time with positive cosmological constant