Cosmic string evolution with a conserved charge

TL;DR

This paper analytically extends the velocity-dependent one-scale (VOS) model to cosmic strings with a conserved charge, revealing how damping and energy losses influence the network's evolution in an expanding universe.

Contribution

It introduces a modified VOS model accounting for conserved charges on cosmic strings, analyzing their impact on network evolution in cosmological settings.

Findings

Charge presence affects scale-invariant evolution.

Damping and energy losses determine network behavior.

Results may differ between Minkowski space and expanding universe.

Abstract

Cosmic strings with degrees of freedom beyond the standard Abrikosov-Nielsen-Olesen or Nambu-Goto strings are ubiquitous in field theory as well as in models with extra dimensions, such as string theoretic brane inflation scenarios. Here we carry out an analytic study of a simplified version of one such cosmic string model. Specifically, we extend the velocity-dependent one-scale (VOS) string evolution model to the case where there is a conserved microscopic charge on the string worldsheet. We find that whether the standard scale-invariant evolution of the network is preserved or destroyed due to the presence of the charge will crucially depend on the amount of damping and energy losses experienced by the network. This suggests, among other things, that results derived in Minkowski space (field theory) simulations may not extend to the case of an expanding universe.