Axion String Source Modelling

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the effect of the string radius of curvature $R_{\mathrm{Gaussian}}$ on the massive and massless scalar radiation emitted from collisions of travelling waves propagating along an axion (global cosmic) string. We construct initial conditions for two colliding Gaussians and perform parameter scans over their amplitude $A$ and standard deviation ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{d}}$. We show that these collisions emit isotropic bursts of massless radiation and that the energy emitted via this channel obeys a power law $\propto A^{\gamma }$, where the coefficient $\gamma$ depends on the regime of $A/\delta$ and $\delta$ is the string width. Massive radiation is exponentially suppressed $\propto e^{-\zeta R_{\mathrm{Gaussian}}}$ in the quasi-linear regime ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{d}}\gg \delta$ and exhibits power-law decay $\propto R_{\mathrm{Gaussian}}^{-{\gamma }^{\prime }}$ in the nonlinear regime ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{d}}\lesssim 2\delta$, with different $\zeta$ and ${\gamma }^{\prime }$ in different regimes of $R_{\mathrm{Gaussian}}$. In this nonlinear regime, massive particle radiation can comprise up to 50\% of the total energy emitted. Drawing on a known parallel between axion radiation from global strings and gravitational radiation from Abelian-Higgs strings, this suggests that massive particle radiation may become significant with respect to the massless (gravitational) channel for such nonlinear burst signals. For all configurations studied, we obtain a spectral index $q\gtrsim 1$ for the axion radiation, where $q\to 1$ as $A$ increases, i.e. a higher proportion of radiation is emitted in high frequency modes.

22 pages, 15 figures, 2 YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSkfizpQDrcaTY_cPca9MtNTZ_K9mgsnP