No Arabic abstract
In the context of a cosmological string model describing the propagation of strings in a time-dependent Robertson-Walker background space-time, we show that the asymptotic acceleration of the Universe can be identified with the square of the string coupling. This allows for a direct measurement of the ten-dimensional string coupling using cosmological data. We conjecture that this is a generic feature of a class of non-critical string models that approach asymptotically a conformal (critical) sigma model whose target space is a four-dimensional space-time with a dilaton background that is linear in sigma-model time. The relation between the cosmic acceleration and the string coupling does not apply in critical strings with constant dilaton fields in four dimensions.
We study the relative contribution of cusps and pseudocusps, on cosmic (super)strings, to the emitted bursts of gravitational waves. The gravitational wave emission in the vicinity of highly relativistic points on the string follows, for a high enough frequency, a logarithmic decrease. The slope has been analytically found to be $^{-4}/_3$ for points reaching exactly the speed of light in the limit $c=1$. We investigate the variations of this high frequency behaviour with respect to the velocity of the points considered, for strings formed through a numerical simulation, and we then compute numerically the gravitational waves emitted. We find that for string points moving with velocities as far as $10^{-3}$ from the theoretical (relativistic) limit $c=1$, gravitational wave emission follows a behaviour consistent with that of cusps, effectively increasing the number of cusps on a string. Indeed, depending on the velocity threshold chosen for such behaviour, we show the emitting part of the string worldsheet is enhanced by a factor ${cal O}(10^3)$ with respect to the emission of cusps only.
We report the first observation of multiple intercommutation (more than two successive reconnections) of cosmic strings at ultra-high collision speeds, and the formation of ``kink trains with up to four closely spaced left- or right-moving kinks. We performed a flat space numerical study of abelian Higgs cosmic string intercommutation in the type-II regime $beta > 1$ (where $beta = m^2_{scalar} / m^2_{gauge}$) up to $beta = 64$, the highest value investigated to date. Our results confirm earlier claims that the minimum critical speed for double reconnection goes down with increasing $beta$, from $sim 0.98 c$ at $beta = 1$ to $sim 0.86 c$ for $beta = 64$. Furthermore, we observe a qualitative change in the process leading to the second intercommutation: if $beta geq 16$ it is mediated by a loop expanding from the collision point whereas if $1 < beta leq 8 $ the previously reported ``loop is just an expanding blob of radiation which has no topological features and is absorbed by the strings. The multiple reconnections are observed in the loop-mediated, deep type-II regime $beta geq 16$. Triple reconnections appear to be quite generic for collision parameters on the boundary between single and double reconnection. For $beta = 16$ we observe quadruple events. They result in clustering of small scale structure in the form of ``kink trains. Our findings suggest that, due to the core interactions, the small scale structure and stochastic gravitational wave background of abelian Higgs strings in the strongly type-II regime may be quite different from what would be expected from studies of Nambu-Goto strings or of abelian Higgs strings in the $beta approx 1$ regime.
We have discussed a particular class of exact cosmological solutions of the 4-dimensional low energy string gravity in the string frame. In the vacuum without matter and the 2-form fields, the exact cosmological solutions always give monotonically shrinking universes if the dilaton field is not a constant. However, in the presence of the 2-form fields and/or the radiation-like fluid in the string frame, the exact cosmological solutions show a minimum size of the universe in the evolution, but with an initial cosmological curvature singularity in the string frame.
We develop sequestered inflation models, where inflation occurs along flat directions in supergravity models derived from type IIB string theory. It is compactified on a ${mathbb{T}^6 over mathbb{Z}_2 times mathbb{Z}_2}$ orientifold with generalized fluxes and O3/O7-planes. At Step I, we use flux potentials which 1) satisfy tadpole cancellation conditions and 2) have supersymmetric Minkowski vacua with flat direction(s). The 7 moduli are split into heavy and massless Goldstone multiplets. At Step II we add a nilpotent multiplet and uplift the flat direction(s) of the type IIB string theory to phenomenological inflationary plateau potentials: $alpha$-attractors with 7 discrete values $3alpha = 1, 2, 3, ..., 7$. Their cosmological predictions are determined by the hyperbolic geometry inherited from string theory. The masses of the heavy fields and the volume of the extra dimensions change during inflation, but this does not affect the inflationary dynamics.
In string theory, the traditional picture of a Universe that emerges from the inflation of a very small and highly curved space-time patch is a possibility, not a necessity: quite different initial conditions are possible, and not necessarily unlikely. In particular, the duality symmetries of string theory suggest scenarios in which the Universe starts inflating from an initial state characterized by very small curvature and interactions. Such a state, being gravitationally unstable, will evolve towards higher curvature and coupling, until string-size effects and loop corrections make the Universe bounce into a standard, decreasing-curvature regime. In such a context, the hot big bang of conventional cosmology is replaced by a hot big bounce in which the bouncing and heating mechanisms originate from the quantum production of particles in the high-curvature, large-coupling pre-bounce phase. Here we briefly summarize the main features of this inflationary scenario, proposed a quarter century ago. In its simplest version (where it represents an alternative and not a complement to standard slow-roll inflation) it can produce a viable spectrum of density perturbations, together with a tensor component characterized by a blue spectral index with a peak in the GHz frequency range. That means, phenomenologically, a very small contribution to a primordial B-mode in the CMB polarization, and the possibility of a large enough stochastic background of gravitational waves to be measurable by present or future gravitational wave detectors.