The observation of quasars at high redshifts presents a mystery in the theory of black hole formation. In order to source such objects, one often relies on the presence of heavy seeds ($M \approx 10^{4-6} \, M_{\odot}$) in place at early times. Unfortunately, the formation of these heavy seeds are difficult to realize within the standard astrophysical context. Here, we investigate whether superconducting cosmic string loops can source sufficiently strong overdensities in the early universe to address this mystery. We review a set of direct collapse conditions under which a primordial gas cloud will undergo monolithic collapse into a massive black hole (forming with a mass of $M_{BH} \approx 10^5 \, M_{\odot}$ at $z \approx 300$ in our scenario), and systematically show how superconducting cosmic string loops can satisfy such conditions in regions of the $Gμ-I$ parameter space.
Electromagnetic radiation from the cusp region of superconducting cosmic strings leads to a radio excess in the photon spectrum in the early universe and can produce a deep absorption feature in the global 21cm signal before the epoch of reionization. We study the constraints on the parameter space of superconducting strings which can be derived by demanding that the absorption feature is not larger in amplitude than what has recently been reported by the EDGES collaboration.
Superconducting cosmic strings emit electromagnetic waves between the times of recombination and reionization. Hence, they have an effect on the global 21cm signal. We compute the resulting absorption features, focusing on strings with critical current, study their dependence on the string tension $μ$, and compare with observational results. For string tensions in the range of $G μ= 10^{-10}$, where $G$ is Newton's gravitational constant, there is an interesting amplification of the two characteristic absorption features, one during the cosmic dawn, $z \lesssim 30$, and the other during the co…
The discovery of a large number of supermassive black holes (SMBH) at redshifts $z > 6$, when the Universe was only 900 million years old, raises the question of how such massive compact objects could form in a cosmologically short time interval. Each of the standard scenarios proposed, involving rapid accretion of seed black holes or black hole mergers, faces severe theoretical difficulties in explaining the short-time formation of supermassive objects. In this work we propose an alternative scenario for the formation of SMBH in the early Universe, in which energy transfer from superconductin…
In this work, the current stability is discussed for cosmic strings with the bosonic superconductivity. A non-vanishing curvature of string generally induce the quantum instability of the current-carrying particle. Its decay rates are explored for various types of model parameters, curved string shapes, and decay processes. As a cosmological application, the stability is examined for superconducting strings in the string network and also for cosmic vortons by evaluating their cosmological evolution. The zero mode and hence the vorton cannot be stable in various cases, e.g., with a hierarchy be…
We present an analytic study of cosmic superconducting chiral string collisions in Minkowski space, applying the kinematic constraints that arise from the relevant generalization of the Nambu-Goto action. In particular, we revisit the solution for chiral superconducting cosmic strings and demonstrate that Y junction production for such strings is possible. We consider the collision of chiral current-carrying straight strings and obtain the region in angle-velocity space that allows the production of string junctions. This study contributes to the understanding of the complex evolution of chira…
Superconducting cosmic strings can exhibit longitudinal, pinching instabilities in some regions of the parameter space. We make predictions about the onset of this instability using the thin string approximation (TSA) and develop an improved analysis that remains applicable for small wavelength perturbations, where the TSA breaks down. We use simulations of perturbed strings to assess the accuracy of the TSA, test the predictions of our new analysis and demonstrate an improvement over previous methods in the literature. Notably, it appears that the instabilities are typically present for a lar…
We study the gravitational radiation emission efficiency $Γ$ of superconducting cosmic strings. We demonstrate, by using a solvable model of transonic strings, that the presence of a current leads to a suppression of the gravitational emission of cusps, kinks and different types of loops. We also show that, when a current is present, the spectrum of emission of loops with cusps is exponentially suppressed as the harmonic mode increases, thus being significantly different from the power law spectrum of currentless loops. Furthermore, we establish a phenomenological relationship between $Γ$ and …
UV Luminosity Functions from HST and JWST: A Possible Resolution to the High-Redshift Galaxy Abundance Puzzle and Implications for Cosmic Strings
McGill University（麦吉尔大学）；The University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）；Cosmic Frontier Center, The University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校宇宙前沿中心）；Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院）；Center for Theoretical Physics, A Leinweber Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院莱因韦伯理论物理中心）
We study how the presence of world-sheet currents affects the evolution of cosmic string networks, and their impact on predictions for the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies generated by these networks. We provide a general description of string networks with currents and explicitly investigate in detail two physically motivated examples: wiggly and superconducting cosmic string networks. By using a modified version of the CMBact code, we show quantitatively how the relevant network parameters in both of these cases influence the predicted CMB signal. Our analysis suggests that pre…
In this paper we calculate the radio burst signals from three kinds of structures of superconducting cosmic strings. By taking into account the observational factors including scattering and relativistic effects, we derive the event rate of radio bursts as a function of redshift with the theoretical parameters $Gμ$ and $\mathcal{I}$ of superconducting strings. Our analyses show that cusps and kinks may have noticeable contributions to the event rate and in most cases cusps would dominate the contribution, while the kink-kink collisions tend to have secondary effects. By fitting theoretical pre…
Three-dimensional ridgelet statistics are used to search for the signals of cosmic string wakes in the distribution of dark matter. We compare N-body simulations of the dark matter distribution in cosmological models with and without a cosmic string wake, assuming that the dominant sources of fluctuations are those predicted in the standard $Λ$CDM model. Cosmic string wakes lead to overdense regions with planar topology, and hence three-dimensional ridgelet statistics are a promising analysis tool. The string signal is easier identifiable for larger string tensions and at higher redshift. We f…
Cosmic strings are generically predicted in many extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics. We propose a new avenue for detecting cosmic strings through their effect on the filamentary structure in the cosmic web. Using cosmological simulations of the density wake from a cosmic string, we examine a variety of filament structure probes. We show that the largest effect of the cosmic string is an overdensity in the filament distribution around the string wake. The signal from the overdensity is stronger at higher redshift, and more robust with a wider field. We analyze the spatial dist…
A cosmic string wake produces a distinct non-Gaussian signal in 21-cm intensity maps at redshifts above that of reionization. While the string signal is (locally) larger in amplitude than the signal of the Gaussian fluctuations of the $Λ$CDM model, they are overwhelmed (even locally in position space) by astrophysical and instrumental foregrounds. Here, we study to what extent the signal can be extracted from noisy interferometric data. The narrowness of the string-induced feature in redshift direction allows for a subtraction of astrophysical and instrumental foregrounds. Based on the specifi…
We study the stability of cosmic string wakes against the disruption by the dominant Gaussian fluctuations which are present in cosmological models. We find that for a string tension given by $G μ= 10^{-7}$ wakes remain locally stable until a redshift of $z = 6$, and for a value of $G μ= 10^{-14}$ they are stable beyond a redshift of $z = 20$. We study a global stability criterion which shows that wakes created by strings at times after $t_{eq}$ are identifiable up to the present time, independent of the value of $G μ$. Taking into account our criteria it is possible to develop strategies to s…
We develop an analytic model to quantitatively describe the evolution of superconducting cosmic string networks. Specifically, we extend the velocity-dependent one-scale (VOS) model to incorporate arbitrary currents and charges on cosmic string worldsheets under two main assumptions, the validity of which we also discuss. We derive equations that describe the string network evolution in terms of four macroscopic parameters: the mean string separation (or alternatively the string correlation length) and the root mean square (RMS) velocity which are the cornerstones of the VOS model, together wi…
Investigating cosmic strings using large-volume hydrodynamical simulations in the context of JWST's massive UV-bright galaxies
Goethe University（歌德大学）；Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院）；Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian（天体物理中心 | 哈佛与史密森尼学会）；McGill University（麦吉尔大学）；Institute for Basic Science（基础科学研究院）；York University（约克大学）
In this paper, we describe the results of N-body simulation runs, which include a cosmic string wake of tension $Gμ= 4 \times 10^{-8}$ on top of the usual $ΛCDM$ fluctuations. To obtain a higher resolution of the wake in the simulations compared to previous work, we insert the effects of the string wake at a lower redshift and perform the simulations in a smaller volume. A curvelet analysis of the wake and no-wake maps is applied, indicating that the presence of a wake can be extracted at a three-sigma confidence level from maps of the two-dimensional dark matter projection down to a redshift …
The recent EDGES collaboration detection of an absorption signal at a central frequency of $ν= 78 \pm 1$ MHz points to the presence of a significant Lyman-$α$ background by a redshift of $z=18$. The timing of this signal constrains the dark matter particle mass ($m_χ$) in the warm dark matter (WDM) cosmological model. WDM delays the formation of small-scale structures, and therefore a stringent lower limit can be placed on $m_χ,$ based on the presence of a sufficiently strong Ly-$α$ background due to star formation at $z=18$. Our results show that the coupling the spin temperature to the gas t…
We revisit the idea that cosmic strings could source fast radio bursts by taking into account Lorentz boosts and a weaker assumption about the scaling law for the energy of particle decay. We show that the distance relation and time scale, for a specific value of the scaling of energy, are still compatible with observations. However, the event rate predicted by the model is too high when compared to the data. We additionally show that a more realistic string, with a finite thickness, further compounds the problem by prohibiting cusp formation and point out how a superconducting wiggly string c…
