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Title: Cosmic archaeology with gravitational waves from cosmic strings

Abstract

Cosmic strings are generic cosmological predictions of many extensions of the standard model of particle physics, such as a U(1)' symmetry-breaking phase transition in the early Universe or remnants of superstring theory. Unlike other topological defects, cosmic strings can reach a scaling regime that maintains a small fixed fraction of the total energy density of the Universe from a very early epoch until today. If present, they will oscillate and generate gravitational waves with a frequency spectrum that imprints the dominant sources of total cosmic energy density throughout the history of the Universe. We demonstrate that current and future gravitational wave detectors, such as LIGO and LISA, could be capable of measuring the frequency spectrum of gravitational waves from cosmic strings and discerning the energy composition of the Universe at times well before primordial nucleosynthesis and the cosmic microwave background where standard cosmology has yet to be tested. This work establishes a benchmark case that gravitational waves may provide an unprecedented, powerful tool for probing the evolutionary history of the very early Universe.

Authors:
; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
OSTI Identifier:
1440801
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1498902; OSTI ID: 1647746
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0007859
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Published Article
Journal Name:
Physical Review. D.
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Physical Review. D. Journal Volume: 97 Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS

Citation Formats

Cui, Yanou, Lewicki, Marek, Morrissey, David E., and Wells, James D. Cosmic archaeology with gravitational waves from cosmic strings. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.97.123505.
Cui, Yanou, Lewicki, Marek, Morrissey, David E., & Wells, James D. Cosmic archaeology with gravitational waves from cosmic strings. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.97.123505
Cui, Yanou, Lewicki, Marek, Morrissey, David E., and Wells, James D. 2018. "Cosmic archaeology with gravitational waves from cosmic strings". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.97.123505.
@article{osti_1440801,
title = {Cosmic archaeology with gravitational waves from cosmic strings},
author = {Cui, Yanou and Lewicki, Marek and Morrissey, David E. and Wells, James D.},
abstractNote = {Cosmic strings are generic cosmological predictions of many extensions of the standard model of particle physics, such as a U(1)' symmetry-breaking phase transition in the early Universe or remnants of superstring theory. Unlike other topological defects, cosmic strings can reach a scaling regime that maintains a small fixed fraction of the total energy density of the Universe from a very early epoch until today. If present, they will oscillate and generate gravitational waves with a frequency spectrum that imprints the dominant sources of total cosmic energy density throughout the history of the Universe. We demonstrate that current and future gravitational wave detectors, such as LIGO and LISA, could be capable of measuring the frequency spectrum of gravitational waves from cosmic strings and discerning the energy composition of the Universe at times well before primordial nucleosynthesis and the cosmic microwave background where standard cosmology has yet to be tested. This work establishes a benchmark case that gravitational waves may provide an unprecedented, powerful tool for probing the evolutionary history of the very early Universe.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevD.97.123505},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1440801}, journal = {Physical Review. D.},
issn = {2470-0010},
number = 12,
volume = 97,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jun 06 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Wed Jun 06 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.97.123505

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 69 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1. FIG. 1. : Frequency spectrum $$Ω$$GW$$h$$2 of GWs from a cosmic string network with Gμ = 5 × 10−12 and $$α$$ = 10−1 assuming a standard cosmological history. The blue (orange) region indicates contributions emitted during matter (radiation) domination with $$n$$ = 3 ($$n$$ ≃ 4). The falling black linesmore » indicate the effect on the spectrum if only those loops created below the temperatures $$T$$max = 10 MeV (dotted), $$T$$max = 1 GeV (dashed), and $$T$$max = 100 GeV (solid) contribute. The upper shaded regions show current and future experimental GW sensitivities.« less

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Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.