Cosmic F- and D-strings from pure Yang-Mills theory

TL;DR

This paper explores the formation and dynamics of cosmic F- and D-strings in pure Yang-Mills theory, using holographic duality and modeling their gravitational wave signals, revealing suppressed reconnection probabilities at large N.

Contribution

It introduces a holographic interpretation of cosmic strings from Yang-Mills theory and models their network dynamics and gravitational wave signals, highlighting suppressed reconnection probabilities.

Findings

Cosmic strings form after the deconfinement/confinement transition.

Reconnection probabilities are suppressed by factors of 1/N^2 and e^{-cN}.

Gravitational wave signals depend on string loop sizes.

Abstract

We discuss the formation of cosmic strings or macroscopic color flux tubes after the deconfinement/confinement phase transition in the pure Yang-Mills theory. Based on holographic dual descriptions, these cosmic strings can be interpreted as fundamental (F-) strings or wrapped D-branes (which we call as D-strings) in the gravity side, depending on the structure of the gauge group. In fact, the reconnection probabilities of the F- and D-strings are suppressed by factors of $1/N^2$ and $e^{-c N}$, where $c = \mathcal{O}(1)$, in a large-$N$ limit, respectively. Supported by the picture of electric-magnetic duality, we discuss that color flux tubes form after the deconfinement/confinement phase transition, just like the formation of local cosmic strings after spontaneous symmetry breaking in the weak-U(1) gauge theory. We use an extended velocity-dependent one-scale model to describe the dynamics of the string network and calculate the gravitational wave signals from string loops. We also discuss the dependence on the size of produced string loops.