Quantum tunneling in the early universe: Stable magnetic monopoles from metastable cosmic strings

Abstract

We present a novel mechanism for producing topologically stable monopoles (TSMs) from the quantum mechanical decay of metastable cosmic strings in the early universe. In an $SO(10)$ model this mechanism yields TSMs that carry two units ($4\pi /e$) of Dirac magnetic charge as well as some color magnetic charge which is screened. For a dimensionless string tension parameter $G\mu \approx 10^{-9}-10^{-5}$, the monopoles are superheavy with masses of order $10^{15}-10^{17}$ GeV. Monopoles with masses of order $10^8-10^{14}$ GeV arise from metastable strings for $G\mu$ values from $\sim 10^{-22}$ to $10^{-10}$. We identify the parameter space for producing these monopoles at an observable level with detectors such as IceCube and KM3NeT. For lower $G\mu$ values the ultra-relativistic monopoles should be detectable at Pierre Auger and ANITA. The stochastic gravitational wave emission arises from metastable strings with $G\mu \sim 10^{-9}-10^{-5}$ and should be accessible at HLVK and future detectors including the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer. An $E_6$ extension based on this framework would yield TSMs from the quantum mechanical decay of metastable strings that carry three units ($6\pi /e$) of Dirac magnetic charge.

22 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, matches version accepted in JCAP

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