We investigate the properties of global cosmic string networks as a function of the ratio of string tension to Goldstone-field coupling, and as a function of the Hubble damping strength. Our results show unambiguously that the string density is sensitive to this ratio. We also find that existing semi-analytical (one-scale) models must be missing some important aspect of the network dynamics. Our results point the way towards improving such models.
We compute, via numerical simulations, the non-perturbative Coulomb potential of pure SU(3) gauge theory in Coulomb gauge. We find that that the Coulomb potential scales nicely in accordance with asymptotic freedom, that the Coulomb potential is linear in the infrared, and that the Coulomb string tension is about four times larger than the asymptotic string tension. We explain how it is possible that the asymptotic string tension can be lower than the Coulomb string tension by a factor of four.
We study the properties of the color-Coulomb string tension obtained from the instantaneous part of gluon propagators in Coulomb gauge using quenched SU(3) lattice simulation. In the confinement phase, the dependence of the color-Coulomb string tension on the QCD coupling constant is smaller than that of the Wilson loop string tension. On the other hand, in the deconfinement phase, the color-Coulomb string tension does not vanish even for $T/T_c = 1 \sim 5$, the temperature dependence of which is comparable with the magnetic scaling, dominating the high temperature QCD. Thus, the color-Coulomb…
It is shown that a Coulomb potential using a running coupling slightly modified from the perturbative form can produce an interquark potential that appears nearly linear over a large distance range. Recent high-statistics SU(2) lattice gauge theory data fit well to this potential without the need for a linear string-tension term. This calls into question the accuracy of string tension measurements which are based on the assumption of a constant coefficient for the Coulomb term. It also opens up the possibility of obtaining an effectively confining potential from gluon exchange alone.
Global string networks may be relevant in axion production in the early Universe, as well as other cosmological scenarios. Such networks contain a large hierarchy of scales between the string core scale and the Hubble scale, log(f/H) around 70, which influences the network dynamics by giving the strings large tensions T = pi f^2 log(f/H). We present a new numerical approach to simulate such global string networks, capturing the tension without an exponentially large lattice.
We numerically compute the spatial string tension in the deconfined phase of three dimensional QCD in the large N limit. Our results clearly show that the string tension grows linearly with temperature.
We present results of modeling the temperature dependence of the spatial string tension and thermal phase transition in a five-dimensional framework nowadays known as AdS/QCD. For temperatures close to the critical one we find a behaviour remarkably consistent with the lattice results.
It is shown that that Gaussian fluctuations of the string tension can account for the "thermal" distribution of transverse mass of particles created in decay of a colour string.
Monopole and photon contributions to abelian Wilson loops are calculated using Monte-Carlo simulations of SU(2) QCD in the maximally abelian gauge. The string tension is well reproduced only by monopole contributions, whereas photons alone are responsible for the Coulomb coefficient of the abelian static potential.
We present an analytical continuum calculation, starting from first principles, of the vacuum wavefunction and string tension for pure Yang-Mills theories in $(2+1)$ dimensions, extending our previous analysis using gauge-invariant matrix variables. The vacuum wavefunction is consistent with what is expected at both high and low momentum regimes. The value of the string tension is in very good agreement with recent lattice Monte Carlo evaluations.
The spatial string tension of a SU(N) gauge theory without quarks is calculated using gauge/string duality for 1.2T_c<T<3T_c. The result is remarkably consistent with the available lattice data for N=2,3. Some evidence is found that to leading order the large distance physics of a string can be described by a five-dimensional geometry without a need for an internal space.
String tension is introduced in perturbative QCD without hindering ultra violet renormalizability . The running gauge coupling constant remains unaltered and the string tension in the high energy limit vanishes asymptotically. Using 1/N techinique the theory can be explicitly analytically computable with cofinement built in . Spontaneous chiral symmetry breakdown along with its Goldstone is exhibited.
Here we revisit the bag phenomenology of the deconfining phase transition to replenish it by introducing systematically the bag surface tension. Comparing the free energy of such bags and that one of the strings confining the static quark-antiquark pair, we express the string tension in terms of the bag surface tension and thermal pressure in order to estimate the bag characteristics using the lattice QCD data. Our analysis of the bag entropy density demonstrates that the surface tension coefficient is amazingly negative at the cross-over (continuous transition). This approach allows us to nat…
We discuss the cosmological evolution of cosmic strings with time-dependent tension. We show that, in the case that the tension changes as a power of time, the cosmic string network obeys the scaling solution: the characteristic scale of the string network grows with the time. But due to the time dependence of the tension, the ratio of the energy density of infinite strings to that of the background universe is {\it not} necessarily constant.
Heavy quark transport coefficients in a strongly coupled Quark-Gluon Plasma can be evaluated using a gauge/string duality and lattice QCD. Via this duality, one can argue that for low momenta the drag coefficient for heavy quarks is proportional to the spatial string tension. Such a tension is well studied on the lattice that allows one to straightforwardly make non-perturbative estimates of the heavy quark diffusion coefficients near the critical point. The obtained results are consistent with those in the literature.
We compute the string tension in massive $QCD_2$. It is shown that the string tension vanishes when the mass of the dynamical quark is zero, with no dependence on the representations of the dynamical or of the external charges. When a small mass ($m\ll e$) is added, a tension appears and we calculate its value as a function of the representations.
We discuss the k dependence of the k-string tension sigma_k in SU(N) supersymmetric gluodynamics. As well known, at large N the k-string consists, to leading order, of k noninteracting fundamental strings, so that sigma_k=k sigma_1. We argue, both from field-theory and string-theory side, that subleading corrections to this formula run in powers of 1/N^2 rather than 1/N, thus excluding the Casimir scaling. We suggest a heuristic model allowing one to relate the k-string tension in four-dimensional gluodynamics with the tension of the BPS domain walls (k-walls). In this model the domain walls a…
We investigate cosmological evolution and implications of cosmic strings with time-dependent tension. We derive basic equations of time development of the correlation length and the velocity of such strings, based on the one scale model. Then, we find that, in the case where the tension depends on some power of the cosmic time, cosmic strings with time-dependent tension goes into the scaling solution if the power is lower than a critical value. We also discuss cosmic microwave background anisotropy and matter power spectra produced by these strings. The constraints on their tensions from the W…
We show that at large distances from an infinitely long global U(1) string, low energy Goldstone Bosons contribute a spatially dependent term to the energy density which is non-integrable. Specifically, this term diverges with the same form as the classical field theory contribution to the string tension, except with negative sign. This suggests that a careful analysis of the infrared degrees of freedom around the global string ought to yield an effective theory of the solitary string whose tension is finite. There are implications for axion cosmology.
Motivated by recent theoretical arguments that expanding strings can be regarded as having a temperature that is inversely proportional to the proper time, tau, we investigate the consequences of adding a term proportional to 1/tau to the string tension in the Lund string-hadronization model. The lattice value for the tension, kappa0 ~ 0.18 GeV^2 ~ 0.9 GeV/fm, is then interpreted as the late-time/equilibrium limit. A generic prediction of this type of model is that early string breaks should be associated with higher strangeness (and baryon) fractions and higher fragmentation <pT> values. It s…
The entropy and effective string tension of the moving heavy quark-antiquark pair in the strongly coupled plasmas are calculated by using a deformed an anti-de Sitter/Reissner-Nordstr$\ddot{o}$m black hole metric. A sharp peak of the heavy-quarkonium entropy around the deconfinement transition can be realized in our model, which is consistent with the lattice QCD result. The effective string tension of the heavy quark-antiquark pair is related to the deconfinement phase transition. Thus, we investigate the deconfinement phase transition by analyzing the characteristics of the effective string …
We find the Casimir-like energies for strings and membranes. We show that the related Casimir forces can be interpreted as quantum corrections to the classical tensions of the strings and membranes. We see that these corrections always increase the tensions of the circular string as well as spherical membrane, while for the straight string, rectangular and cylindrical membranes, these Casimir forces may increase or decrease the tensions. So we find that the quantum vacuum can break the (tensional) isotropy of the rectangular and cylindrical membranes. Also obtaining the nonzero-temperature Cas…
The thick- or fat-center-vortices model has been applied to a calculation of the potentials between static sources of various SU(4) representations. For intermediate distances, a linear potential is obtained. For this region the string tensions agree qualitatively with both flux tube counting and Casimir scaling, even though for some representations it favors flux tube counting more. In addition, our results confirm the existence of two different string tensions for non-zero 4-ality representations at large distances. In this area, zero 4-ality representations are screened. In our computations…
This paper has been withdrawn. The interpretation of tension spectrum of cosmic superstrings in terms of KK momentum is invalid as presented in section 2. A new paper based on calculations of the KK spectrum presented here will be submitted.
The phenomenon of the almost linear growth of the square root of spatial string tension $\sqrt{σ_s(T)}= c_σ g^2 T$ and of the Debye mass $m_D(T)$ was found both in lattice and in theory, based on the Field Correlator Method (FCM). In the latter the string tension (both spatial and colorelectric) is expressed as an integral of the two gluon Green's function calculated with the same string tension: $σ= \int G^{(2g)}_σ$. This relation allows to check the selfconsistency of the theory and at high T it allows also to calculate $c_σ$ and hence $σ_s$. We calculate below in the paper the corresponding…
We revisit D-term inflation with the bounds of the cosmic string tension from gravitational wave observations and consider the possible deviation of the spectral index compared with the $Λ$CDM model in light of prerecombination resolutions of the Hubble tension. D-term inflation requires very small coupling constants under these constraints. We show that natural coupling constants ($g=λ=0.1$) can be achieved in the case of D-term inflation on the brane.
General properties of the light and heavy quark propagators have been investigated in the context of string tension interaction. Confinement, chiral symmetry breaking, spectral properties of the propagator are analytically studied and numerically validated. We show that the propagator is analytic in the infrared region even for massless quarks with a non zero radius of convergence. Emergence of more than one mass scale is exemplified. Massless limit of the quark propagator does exhibit critical behaviour.
We present here a lightning review of the status of the Hubble-Lemaître tension. Instead of discussing the broad array of proposed solutions found in the literature, we focus here on the assumptions made to measure the Hubble constant from cosmic microwave background and baryon acoustic oscillation data on the one hand, and from a cepheid-calibrated distance ladder on the other hand. From this discussion, we extract two important lessons that inform which kind of physics-based solutions could plausibly resolve this tension.
In previous work, we constructed a convolutional neural network used to estimate the location of cosmic strings in simulated cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy maps. We derived a connection between the estimates of cosmic string locations by this neural network and the posterior probability distribution of the cosmic string tension $Gμ$. Here, we significantly improve the calculation of the posterior distribution of the string tension $Gμ$. We also improve our previous plain convolutional neural network by using residual networks. We apply our new neural network and posterior c…
The dynamics of string junctions and their influence on the evolution of cosmic superstring networks are studied in full detail. We review kinematic constraints for colliding strings in a Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker background and obtain the average distribution of possible string configurations after string collisions. The study of small-scale structure enables us to investigate the average growth/reduction rate of string junctions for a given cosmic string network. Incorporating the averaged junction dynamics into the velocity-dependent one-scale model for multi-tension string networ…
In a simple reanalysis of the KKLMMT scenario, we argue that the slow roll condition in the D3-anti-D3-brane inflationary scenario in superstring theory requires no more than a moderate tuning. The cosmic string tension is very sensitive to the conformal coupling: with less fine-tuning, the cosmic string tension (as well as the ratio of tensor to scalar perturbation mode) increases rapidly and can easily saturate the present observational bound. In a multi-throat brane inflationary scenario, this feature substantially improves the chance of detecting and measuring the properties of the cosmic …
We consider the evolution of a network of strings in an expanding universe, allowing for the formation of junctions between strings of different tensions. By explicitly including, in the velocity-dependent evolution equations for the network, kinematic constraints associated with the formation of Y-shaped string junctions, we show how they lead to scaling solutions in regimes where they would not otherwise be found, thereby extending the range of parameters which lead to scaling. By incorporating these constraints we are able to study their general behaviour for networks with cosmic superstrin…
The cosmic string is a useful probe of the early Universe and may give us a clue to physics at high energy scales where any artificial particle accelerators cannot reach. Although one of the most promising tools is the cosmic microwave background, the constraint from gravitational waves is becoming so stringent that one may not hope to detect its signatures in the cosmic microwave background. In this paper, we construct a scenario that contains cosmic strings observable in the cosmic microwave background while evading the constraint imposed by the recent pulsar timing data. We argue that cosmi…
An early dark energy component consisting of a cosmic pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson has been recently proposed to resolve the Hubble tension -- the four-sigma discrepancy between precision measurements of the expansion rate of the universe. Here we point out that such an axion-like component may be expected to couple to electromagnetism by a Chern-Simons term, and will thereby induce an anisotropic cosmic birefringence signal in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We show that observations of the rotation-angle power spectrum and cross-correlation with CMB temperature ani…
