Abstract
Complicated cosmic string loops will fragment until they reach simple, nonintersecting ("stable") configurations. Through extensive numerical study we characterize these attractor loop shapes including their length, velocity, kink, and cusp distributions. We find that an initial loop containing M harmonic modes will, on average, split into 3M stable loops. These stable loops are approximately described by the degenerate kinky loop, which is planar and rectangular, independently of the number of modes on the initial loop. This is confirmed by an analytic construction of a stable family of perturbed degenerate kinky loops. The average stable loop is also found to have a 40% chance of containing a cusp. We examine the properties of stable loops of different lengths and find only slight variation. Finally we develop a new analytic scheme to explicitly solve the string constraint equations.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 023529 |
| Journal | Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology |
| Volume | 83 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 27 2011 |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Cite this
Shape of cosmic string loops. / Copi, Craig J.; Vachaspati, Tanmay.
In: Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology, Vol. 83, No. 2, 023529, 27.01.2011.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Shape of cosmic string loops
AU - Copi, Craig J.
AU - Vachaspati, Tanmay
PY - 2011/1/27
Y1 - 2011/1/27
N2 - Complicated cosmic string loops will fragment until they reach simple, nonintersecting ("stable") configurations. Through extensive numerical study we characterize these attractor loop shapes including their length, velocity, kink, and cusp distributions. We find that an initial loop containing M harmonic modes will, on average, split into 3M stable loops. These stable loops are approximately described by the degenerate kinky loop, which is planar and rectangular, independently of the number of modes on the initial loop. This is confirmed by an analytic construction of a stable family of perturbed degenerate kinky loops. The average stable loop is also found to have a 40% chance of containing a cusp. We examine the properties of stable loops of different lengths and find only slight variation. Finally we develop a new analytic scheme to explicitly solve the string constraint equations.
AB - Complicated cosmic string loops will fragment until they reach simple, nonintersecting ("stable") configurations. Through extensive numerical study we characterize these attractor loop shapes including their length, velocity, kink, and cusp distributions. We find that an initial loop containing M harmonic modes will, on average, split into 3M stable loops. These stable loops are approximately described by the degenerate kinky loop, which is planar and rectangular, independently of the number of modes on the initial loop. This is confirmed by an analytic construction of a stable family of perturbed degenerate kinky loops. The average stable loop is also found to have a 40% chance of containing a cusp. We examine the properties of stable loops of different lengths and find only slight variation. Finally we develop a new analytic scheme to explicitly solve the string constraint equations.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79551539444&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=79551539444&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevD.83.023529
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevD.83.023529
M3 - Article
VL - 83
JO - Physical review D: Particles and fields
JF - Physical review D: Particles and fields
SN - 1550-7998
IS - 2
M1 - 023529
ER -