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Hauptverfasser: Schmitz, Kai, Schroeder, Tobias
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.20907
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author Schmitz, Kai
Schroeder, Tobias
author_facet Schmitz, Kai
Schroeder, Tobias
contents Cosmic strings represent an attractive source of gravitational waves (GWs) from the early Universe. However, numerical computation of the GW signal from cosmic strings requires the evaluation of complicated integral and sum expressions, which can become computationally costly in large parameter scans. This motivates us to rederive the GW signal from a network of local stable cosmic strings in the Nambu-Goto approximation and based on the velocity-dependent one-scale model from a ``pedestrian'' perspective. That is, we derive purely analytical expressions for the total GW spectrum, which remain exact wherever possible and whose error can be tracked and reduced in a controlled way in crucial situations in which we are forced to introduce approximations. In this way, we obtain powerful formulas that, unlike existing results in the literature, are valid across the entire frequency spectrum and across the entire conceivable range of cosmic-string tensions. We provide an in-depth discussion of the GW spectra thus obtained, including their characteristic break frequencies and approximate power-law behaviors, comment on the effect of changes in the effective number of degrees of freedom during radiation domination, and conclude with a concise summary of our main formulas that can readily be used in future studies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_20907
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Gravitational waves from cosmic strings for pedestrians
Schmitz, Kai
Schroeder, Tobias
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Cosmic strings represent an attractive source of gravitational waves (GWs) from the early Universe. However, numerical computation of the GW signal from cosmic strings requires the evaluation of complicated integral and sum expressions, which can become computationally costly in large parameter scans. This motivates us to rederive the GW signal from a network of local stable cosmic strings in the Nambu-Goto approximation and based on the velocity-dependent one-scale model from a ``pedestrian'' perspective. That is, we derive purely analytical expressions for the total GW spectrum, which remain exact wherever possible and whose error can be tracked and reduced in a controlled way in crucial situations in which we are forced to introduce approximations. In this way, we obtain powerful formulas that, unlike existing results in the literature, are valid across the entire frequency spectrum and across the entire conceivable range of cosmic-string tensions. We provide an in-depth discussion of the GW spectra thus obtained, including their characteristic break frequencies and approximate power-law behaviors, comment on the effect of changes in the effective number of degrees of freedom during radiation domination, and conclude with a concise summary of our main formulas that can readily be used in future studies.
title Gravitational waves from cosmic strings for pedestrians
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.20907