Gravitational wave bursts from cosmic strings

TL;DR

This paper investigates gravitational wave bursts from cosmic string cusps, highlighting their potential detectability by future GW observatories and their possible association with gamma-ray bursts.

Contribution

It introduces the prediction of strong GW bursts from cosmic string cusps and assesses their detectability with upcoming GW detectors.

Findings

GW bursts from cosmic string cusps can be detected by LIGO/VIRGO and LISA.

The GW signals are highly non-Gaussian with occasional sharp bursts.

Detectability extends to string tensions as low as Gμ ~ 10^{-13}.

Abstract

Cusps of cosmic strings emit strong beams of high-frequency gravitational waves (GW). As a consequence of these beams, the stochastic ensemble of gravitational waves generated by a cosmological network of oscillating loops is strongly non Gaussian, and includes occasional sharp bursts that stand above the rms GW background. These bursts might be detectable by the planned GW detectors LIGO/VIRGO and LISA for string tensions as small as $G \mu \sim 10^{-13}$. The GW bursts discussed here might be accompanied by Gamma Ray Bursts.