Excited cosmic strings with superconducting currents

Hartmann, Betti; Michel, Florent; Peter, Patrick

Abstract

We present a detailed analysis of excited cosmic string solutions that possess superconducting currents. These currents can be excited inside the string core, and—if the condensate is large enough—can lead to the excitations of the Higgs field. Next to the case with global unbroken symmetry, we discuss also the effects of the gauging of this symmetry and show that excited condensates persist when coupled to an electromagnetic field. The space-time of such strings is also constructed by solving the Einstein equations numerically and we show how the local scalar curvature is modified by the excitation. We consider the relevance of our results on the cosmic string network evolution as well as observations of primordial gravitational waves and cosmic rays.

Citation

Hartmann, B., Michel, F., & Peter, P. (2017). Excited cosmic strings with superconducting currents. Physical Review D, 96(12), Article 123531. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.96.123531

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 18, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Dec 26, 2017
• Publication Date: Dec 26, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jan 11, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 11, 2018
• Journal: Physical Review D
• Print ISSN: 2470-0010
• Electronic ISSN: 2470-0029
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 96
• Issue: 12
• Article Number: 123531
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.96.123531
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1341186