Oral comunication
S. Mukovnikov, L. Sousa
Abstract
Cosmic strings can be produced during phase transitions in the very early universe. They are par-
ticularly interesting objects since they emit gravitational waves contributing to the stochastic grav-
itational wave background. This gives us possibility to connect gravitational waves experiments to
unknown physics scenarios of the very distant past. In the early stages of cosmic string network
evolution we expect frequent interactions of cosmic strings with particles of the surrounding plasma.
Usually in the literature the contribution to the stochastic gravitational wave background from these
friction-dominated regimes is neglected. In our work, however, we show that, for a significant part
of parameter space, the inclusion of friction leads to a prominent signature in the ultra high fre-
quency range of the spectrum. More than that, this signature should be sensitive to the particular
underlying high energy physics scenarios, depending not only on the fields that constitute the string
but also on the particle contents of the early universe.
BSM^2 - Beyond the Standard Model BrainStorming Meeting: Particle Physics and Cosmology interface
Vila do Conde, Portugal
2024 July
