Searching for Cosmic Strings in New Observational Windows

TL;DR

This paper explores how cosmic strings, predicted by theories beyond the Standard Model, can be detected through their unique signatures in cosmic microwave background polarization and 21cm surveys, offering a new way to probe high-energy physics.

Contribution

It introduces methods to search for cosmic strings using novel observational data, expanding the tools for testing high-energy physics models.

Findings

Potential signatures in CMB polarization maps

Detectable effects in 21cm redshift surveys

Constraints on particle physics models from observations

Abstract

Cosmic strings are predicted in many models beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. In models which admit strings, a network of strings will inevitably be formed in a phase transition in the early universe and will persist to the present time. Strings leave behind distinctive features in cosmology. Searching for these signatures in new observational windows provides a way to constrain particle physics at the high energy scale and is thus complementary to searches for new physics at the low energy end, for example at the LHC. Specifically, I will discuss signatures of cosmic strings in cosmic microwave background polarization maps and in 21cm redshift surveys.