51. Scaling of cosmic string loops
- Author
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Vanchurin, Vitaly, Olum, Ken D., and Vilenkin, Alexander
- Subjects
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology ,Astrophysics ,High Energy Physics - Phenomenology ,High Energy Physics - Theory - Abstract
We study the spectrum of loops as a part of a complete network of cosmic strings in flat spacetime. After a long transient regime, characterized by production of small loops at the scale of the initial conditions, it appears that a true scaling regime takes over. In this final regime the characteristic length of loops scales as $0.1 t$, in contrast to earlier simulations which found tiny loops. We expect the expanding-universe behavior to be qualitatively similar. The large loop sizes have important cosmological implications. In particular, the nucleosynthesis bound becomes $G\mu \lesssim 10^{-7}$, much tighter than before., Comment: Added discussion of gravitational wave bounds; other minor changes
- Published
- 2005
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