Observational constraints on the types of cosmic strings

Abstract

This paper is aimed at setting observational limits to the number of cosmic strings (Nambu-Goto, Abelian-Higgs, semilocal) and other topological defects (textures). Radio maps of CMB anisotropy, provided by the space mission Planck for various frequencies, were filtered and then processed by the method of convolution with modified Haar functions (MHF) to search for cosmic string candidates. This method was designed to search for solitary strings, without additional assumptions about the presence of networks of such objects. The sensitivity of the MHF method is $\delta T\approx 10\mu K$ in a background of $\delta T\approx 100\mu K$. The comparison of these with previously known results on search string network shows that strings can only be semilocal in an amount of $1÷5$, with the upper restriction on individual strings tension (linear density) of $G\mu /c^2\le 7.36\cdot 10^{-7}$. The texture model is also legal. There are no strings with $G\mu /c^2>7.36\cdot 10^{-7}$. However, comparison with the data for the search of non-Gaussian signals shows that the presence of several (up to 3) of Nambu-Goto strings is also possible. For $G\mu /c^2\le 4.83\cdot 10^{-7}$ the MHF method is ineffective because of unverifiable spurious string candidates. Thus the existence of strings with tensions $G\mu /c^2\le 4.83\cdot 10^{-7}$ is not prohibited but it is beyond the Planck data possibilities.

15 pages, 10 figures; accepted by the European Physical Journal C

References in corpus (2)

• Gravitational lensing by cosmic strings: what we learn from the CSL-1 case
• Cosmic microwave anisotropies from BPS semilocal strings

Cited by in corpus (6)

• On the Dirac oscillator in a spinning cosmic string spacetime in external magnetic fields: Investigation of energy spectrum and connection with the condensed matter physics
• On the inverse problem of finding cosmic strings and other topological defects
• Optical analysis of a CMB cosmic string candidate
• Cosmological Evolution of Semilocal String Networks
• Lumpy cosmic strings
• Observational constraints on cosmological superstrings