The Battle of the Bulge: Decay of the Thin, False Cosmic String

Understand

We consider the decay of cosmic strings that are trapped in the false vacuum in a theory of scalar electrodynamics in 3+1 dimensions.

• We restrict our analysis to the case of thin-walled cosmic strings which occur when large magnetic flux trapped inside the string.
• Thus the string looks like a tube of fixed radius, at which it is classically stable.
• The core of the string contains magnetic flux in the true vacuum, while outside the string, separated by a thin wall, is the false vacuum.