Cosmic Strings

TL;DR

Cosmic strings, rooted in grand unified theories and supported by recent developments in string theory, are studied within cosmology to understand their implications and constraints from observational data.

Contribution

The paper reviews the theoretical background of cosmic strings, including their formation in supersymmetric theories and string theory, and discusses their role in cosmological models.

Findings

Cosmic strings can be formed in supersymmetric grand unified theories.

Constraints on cosmic string parameters inform high energy physics models.

Cosmic superstrings can act as cosmic strings in braneworld cosmologies.

Abstract

Cosmic strings, a hot subject in the 1980's and early 1990's, lost its appeal when it was found that it leads to inconsistencies in the power spectrum of the measured cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies. However, topological defects in general, and cosmic strings in particular, are deeply rooted in the framework of grand unified theories. Indeed, it was shown that cosmic strings are expected to be generically formed within supersymmetric grand unified theories. This theoretical support gave a new boost to the field of cosmic strings, a boost which has been recently enhanced when it was shown that cosmic superstrings (fundamental or one-dimensional Dirichlet branes) can play the role of cosmic strings, in the framework of braneworld cosmologies. To build a cosmological scenario we employ high energy physics; inflation and cosmic strings then naturally appear. Confronting the predictions of the cosmological scenario against current astrophysical/cosmological data we impose constraints on its free parameters, obtaining information about the high energy physics we employed. This is a beautiful example of the rich and fruitful interplay between cosmology and high energy physics.