CMB power spectrum contribution from cosmic strings using field-evolution simulations of the Abelian Higgs model

By Neil Bevis, M. Hindmarsh, Martin Kunz, J. Urrestilla. 2006

149 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present the first field-theoretic calculations of the contribution made by cosmic strings to the temperature power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Unlike previous work, in which strings were modeled as idealized one-dimensional objects, we evolve the simplest example of an underlying field theory containing local U(1) strings, the Abelian Higgs model. Limitations imposed by finite computational volumes are overcome using the scaling property of string networks and a further extrapolation related to the lessening of the string width in comoving coordinates. The strings and their decay products, which are automatically included in the field theory approach, source metric perturbations via their energy-momentum tensor, the unequal-time correlation functions of which are used as input into the CMB calculation phase. These calculations involve the use of a modified version of CMBEASY, with results provided over the full range of relevant scales. We find that the string tension required to normalize to the WMAP 3-year data at multipole [script-l]=10 is G=[2.040.06(stat.)0.12(sys.)]10-6, where we have quoted statistical and systematic errors separately, and G is Newton's constant. This is a factor 23 higher than values in current circulation.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f0ad8b5c733c41e4d13f477cf9ae3a8b38b9c40d

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. David N. Spergel
2. Mark Halpern
3. Simon D. M. White
4. J. Dunkley
5. Edward J. Wollack
6. L. Page
7. M. Nolta
8. M. Limon

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

1. David N. Spergel
2. Mark Halpern
3. Edward J. Wollack
4. M. Nolta
5. M. Limon
6. L. Page
7. J. Dunkley
8. Robert Lupton

Citations in the corpus

• THE ATACAMA COSMOLOGY TELESCOPE: COSMOLOGICAL PARAMETERS FROM THE 2008 POWER SPECTRUM (2010, methodology): “Constraints have been placed on the cosmic string tension from recent CMB and other cosmological data (Lo & Wright 2005;Wyman et al. 2005, 2006; Battye et al. 2006; Fraisse 2007; Bevis et al. 2007; Urrestilla et al. 2008; Sievers et al. 2009).”