Introduction to Cosmic F- and D-Strings

Abstract

In these lectures I discuss the possibility that superstrings of cosmic length might exist and be observable. I first review the original idea of cosmic strings arising as gauge theory solitons, and discuss in particular their network properties and the observational bounds that rule out cosmic strings as the principal origin of structure in our universe. I then consider cosmic superstrings, including the `fundamental' F-strings and also D-strings and strings arising from wrapped branes. I discuss the conditions under which these will exist and be observable, and ways in which different kinds of string might be distinguished. We will see that each of these issues is model-dependent, but that some of the simplest models of inflation in string theory do lead to cosmic superstrings. Moreover, these could be the first objects seen in gravitational wave astronomy, and might have distinctive network properties. The outline of these lectures follows hep-th/0410082, but the treatment is more detailed and pedagogical.

34 pages. Lectures presented at the 2004 Cargese Summer School

References in corpus (7)

• Gravitational radiation from cosmic (super)strings: bursts, stochastic background, and observational windows
• A Note on the evolution of cosmic string/superstring networks
• TASI/PiTP/ISS Lectures on Moduli and Microphysics
• $D$-term inflation, cosmic strings, and consistency with cosmic microwave background measurement
• Overproduction of cosmic superstrings
• Cosmic strings reborn?
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Cited by in corpus (40)

• Cosmic Strings and Superstrings
• Computational complexity of the landscape I
• Fundamental cosmic strings
• Comparing Infrared Dirac-Born-Infeld Brane Inflation to Observations
• Cosmic Strings and Cosmic Superstrings
• Numerical experiments with p F- and q D-strings: the formation of (p,q) bound states
• Detecting Cosmic Strings in the CMB with the Canny Algorithm
• A First Search for coincident Gravitational Waves and High Energy Neutrinos using LIGO, Virgo and ANTARES data from 2007
• The Search For Primordial Tensor Modes
• How to form a wormhole
• Heterotic Cosmic Strings
• DBI Global Strings
• Weak lensing generated by vector perturbations and detectability of cosmic strings
• Non-Abelian Global Strings at Chiral Phase Transition
• Cosmic strings interacting with dark strings
• Interactions of Cosmic Superstrings
• Magnetogenesis from Cosmic String Loops
• Cosmic String Loops and Gravitational Radiation
• The effect of dark strings on semilocal strings
• Gravitational Wave Bursts from Cosmic Superstring Reconnections
• Brane Inflation and Defect Formation
• A Note on Noncommutative Brane Inflation
• Black hole formation from collisions of cosmic fundamental strings
• Kinks, extra dimensions, and gravitational waves
• Periodic Gravitational Waves From Small Cosmic String Loops
• Global and Local D-vortices
• Cosmic strings in a space-time with positive cosmological constant
• On Semiclassical Limits of String States
• Spin-Statistics Violations in Superstring Theory
• Towards an Observational Appraisal of String Cosmology
• A Tutorial on Links between Cosmic String Theory and Superstring Theory
• Covariant Vertex Operators for Cosmic Strings
• Cosmic Strings with Small Tension
• Half-BPS cosmic string in N=2 supergravity in the presence of a dilaton
• Gauge-String Dualities and Some Applications
• Non-Relativistic Strings in Expanding Spacetime
• Relativistic Dynamics of Multi-BPS D-vortices and Straight BPS D-strings
• Black hole hair in higher dimensions
• PhD Thesis: String theory in the early universe
• Topics in Cosmology