Cosmic Filaments from Cosmic Strings

Abstract

Cosmic strings are generically predicted in many extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics. We propose a new avenue for detecting cosmic strings through their effect on the filamentary structure in the cosmic web. Using cosmological simulations of the density wake from a cosmic string, we examine a variety of filament structure probes. We show that the largest effect of the cosmic string is an overdensity in the filament distribution around the string wake. The signal from the overdensity is stronger at higher redshift, and more robust with a wider field. We analyze the spatial distribution of filaments from a publicly available catalog of filaments built from SDSS galaxies. With existing data, we find no evidence for the presence of a cosmic string wake with string tension parameter $G\mu$ above $5\times 10^{-6}$. However, we project WFIRST will be able to detect a signal from such a wake at the $99\%$ confidence level at redshift $z=2$, with significantly higher confidence and the possibility of probing lower tensions ($G\mu \sim 10^{-6}$), at $z=10$. The sensitivity of this method is not competitive with constraints derived from the CMB. However, it provides an independent discovery channel at low redshift, which could be a smoking-gun in scenarios where the CMB bound can be weakened.

arXiv comment12 pages, 13 figures

References in corpus (48)

• Astropy: A Community Python Package for Astronomy
• The cosmological simulation code GADGET-2
• Nine-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Cosmological Parameter Results
• Binary companions of evolved stars in APOGEE DR14: Search method and catalog of ~5,000 companions
• The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: Spectra and redshifts
• SDSS-III: Massive Spectroscopic Surveys of the Distant Universe, the Milky Way Galaxy, and Extra-Solar Planetary Systems
• The DESI Experiment Part I: Science,Targeting, and Survey Design
• How Filaments are Woven into the Cosmic Web
• The 6dF Galaxy Survey: Final Redshift Release (DR3) and Southern Large-Scale Structures
• Wide-Field InfrarRed Survey Telescope-Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets WFIRST-AFTA 2015 Report
• Cosmology and Fundamental Physics with the Euclid Satellite
• The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: Design, Observations, Data Reduction, and Redshifts
• The persistent cosmic web and its filamentary structure I: Theory and implementation
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): end of survey report and data release 2
• Cosmic F- and D-strings
• Tracing the cosmic web
• Planck 2013 results. XXV. Searches for cosmic strings and other topological defects
• Formation and evolution of cosmic D-strings
• Detecting filamentary pattern in the cosmic web: a catalogue of filaments for the SDSS
• The persistent cosmic web and its filamentary structure II: Illustrations
• Large parallel cosmic string simulations: New results on loop production
• The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS). Full spectroscopic data and auxiliary information release (PDR-2)
• CMB power spectrum contribution from cosmic strings using field-evolution simulations of the Abelian Higgs model
• Collisions of Cosmic F- and D-strings
• Numerical simulations of string networks in the Abelian-Higgs model
• Lack of clustering in low-redshift 21-cm intensity maps cross-correlated with 2dF galaxy densities
• Constraints on cosmic strings using data from the first Advanced LIGO observing run
• On the Evolution of Abelian-Higgs String Networks
• Probing the pre-BBN universe with gravitational waves from cosmic strings
• Testing Seesaw and Leptogenesis with Gravitational Waves
• Cosmic Archaeology with Gravitational Waves from Cosmic Strings
• Exact Scale-Invariant Background of Gravitational Waves from Cosmic Defects
• Scaling of Multi-Tension Cosmic Superstring Networks
• Decay of Cosmic String Loops Due to Particle Radiation
• Cosmic Web Reconstruction through Density Ridges: Method and Algorithm
• Cosmic Strings
• The 21 cm Signature of Cosmic String Wakes
• Radiation from cosmic string standing waves
• An Emulator for the Lyman-alpha Forest
• Cosmic Web Reconstruction through Density Ridges: Catalogue
• Signature of inflation in the stochastic gravitational wave background generated by cosmic string networks
• High-Contrast Testbeds for Future Space-Based Direct Imaging Exoplanet Missions
• Non-Thermal Dark Matter from Cosmic Strings
• Direct Observation of Cosmic Strings via their Strong Gravitational Lensing Effect: II. Results from the HST/ACS Image Archive
• Dark Matter Distribution Induced by a Cosmic String Wake in the Nonlinear Regime
• Disruption of Cosmic String Wakes by Gaussian Fluctuations
• Packed Ultra-wideband Mapping Array (PUMA): Astro2020 RFI Response
• Cosmic String Wake Detection using 3D Ridgelet Transformations

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Baryogenesis from ultralight primordial black holes and strong gravitational waves from cosmic strings
• Gravitational Wave Bursts as Harbingers of Cosmic Strings Diluted by Inflation
• SCONCE: A cosmic web finder for spherical and conic geometries
• Future targets for light gauge bosons from cosmic strings
• A novel Cosmic Filament catalogue from SDSS data
• Gravitational wave complementarity and impact of NANOGrav data on gravitational leptogenesis: cosmic strings