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Title: Decay of Cosmic String Loops due to Particle Radiation

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters

Constraints on the tension and the abundance of cosmic strings depend crucially on the rate at which they decay into particles and gravitational radiation. We study the decay of cosmic string loops in the Abelian-Higgs model by performing field theory simulations of loop formation and evolution. We find that our set of string loops emits particle radiation primarily due to kink collisions, and that the decay time due to these losses is proportional to $L^p$ with $p≈2$ where $$L$$ is the loop length. In contrast, the decay time to gravitational radiation scales in proportion to $$L$$, and we show that particle emission is the primary energy loss mechanism for loops smaller than a critical length scale, while gravitational losses dominate for larger loops.

Research Organization:
Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0019470
OSTI ID:
1514732
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1594984
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Vol. 122 Journal Issue: 20; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 30 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Testing the Seesaw Mechanism and Leptogenesis with Gravitational Waves text January 2020

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