Vanishing of Gravitational Particle Production in the Formation of Cosmic Strings

TL;DR

This paper investigates gravitational particle production during cosmic string formation and finds that such production may be entirely suppressed, challenging previous estimates of high energy output.

Contribution

It demonstrates that gravitational particle production during cosmic string formation can be suppressed, contradicting earlier estimates of significant energy emission.

Findings

Production may be completely suppressed during cosmic string formation.

Previous estimates of high power output are likely overestimated.

Photon production is also expected to be suppressed.

Abstract

We consider the gravitationally induced particle production from the quantum vacuum which is defined by a free, massless and minimally coupled scalar field during the formation of a gauge cosmic string. Previous discussions of this topic estimate the power output per unit length along the string to be of the order of $10^{68}$ ergs/sec/cm in the s-channel. We find that this production may be completely suppressed. A similar result is also expected to hold for the number of produced photons.