New limits on cosmic strings from gravitational wave observation

By Jose J. Blanco-Pillado, Ken D. Olum, X. Siemens. 2017

186 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract We combine new analysis of the stochastic gravitational wave background to be expected from cosmic strings with the latest pulsar timing array (PTA) limits to give an upper bound on the energy scale of the possible cosmic string network, G μ 1.5 × 10 − 11 at the 95% confidence level. We also show bounds from LIGO and to be expected from LISA and BBO. Current estimates for the gravitational wave background from supermassive black hole binaries are at the level where a PTA detection is expected. But if PTAs do observe a background soon, it will be difficult in the short term to distinguish black holes from cosmic strings as the source, because the spectral indices from the two sources happen to be quite similar. If PTAs do not observe a background, then the limits on Gμ will improve somewhat, but a string network with Gμ substantially below 10 − 11 will produce gravitational waves primarily at frequencies too high for PTA observation, so significant further progress will depend on intermediate-frequency observatories such as LISA, DECIGO and BBO.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/dc9ea4caff8f23b8162c15baccbbf91e8391c7d8

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Marek Lewicki
2. G. Servant
3. P. Simakachorn
4. Y. Gouttenoire
5. Daniel G. Figueroa
6. Jose J. Blanco-Pillado
7. Ken D. Olum
8. Yanou Cui

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

1. G. Servant
2. Marek Lewicki
3. P. Simakachorn
4. Y. Gouttenoire
5. Jose J. Blanco-Pillado
6. Daniel G. Figueroa
7. Ken D. Olum
8. Yanou Cui

Citations in the corpus

• Probing the gravitational wave background from cosmic strings with LISA (2019, background): “10−11 [81, 82], and LIGO-Virgo observations constraining it to as low as Gμ < 2 × 10−14, depending on the string network model [83, 84].”
• Beyond the Standard Models with cosmic strings (2019, background): “The GW radiation power is found to be [65] PGW = ΓGμ (2), (7) where the total GW emission efficiency Γ is determined from Nambu-Goto simulations, Γ ' 50 [116].”
• Probing the pre-BBN universe with gravitational waves from cosmic strings (2018, background): “ound on these GW spectra comes from EPTA and implies G. 2 10 11. Other recent estimates of the GW spectrum from a scaling cosmic string network relative to current and future searches includes Refs. [90,105,106]. 2.3 Connecting GW frequencies to loop formation and emission times The GW spectra shown”
• Stochastic gravitational wave background from smoothed cosmic string loops (2017, result): “A companion paper [7] compares the results predicted here with limits from current observations and discusses the prospects of detection in the future.”