Early structure formation from cosmic string loops
- Institute of Cosmology, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University, 212 College Avenue, Medford, MA 02155 (United States)
- Institute for Theory and Computation, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138 (United States)
We examine the effects of cosmic strings on structure formation and on the ionization history of the universe. While Gaussian perturbations from inflation are known to provide the dominant contribution to the large scale structure of the universe, density perturbations due to strings are highly non-Gaussian and can produce nonlinear structures at very early times. This could lead to early star formation and reionization of the universe. We improve on earlier studies of these effects by accounting for high loop velocities and for the filamentary shape of the resulting halos. We find that for string energy scales Gμ∼>10{sup −7}, the effect of strings on the CMB temperature and polarization power spectra can be significant and is likely to be detectable by the Planck satellite. We mention shortcomings of the standard cosmological model of galaxy formation which may be remedied with the addition of cosmic strings, and comment on other possible observational implications of early structure formation by strings.
- OSTI ID:
- 22279981
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2012, Issue 05; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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