Multi-messenger constraints on Abelian-Higgs cosmic string networks

Understand

Nielsen-Olesen vortices in the Abelian-Higgs (AH) model are the simplest realisations of cosmic strings in a gauge field theory.

• Large-scale numerical solutions show that the dominant decay channel of a network of AH strings produced from random initial conditions is classical field radiation.
• However, they also show that with special initial conditions, loops of string can be created for which classical field radiation is suppressed, and which behave like Nambu-Goto (NG) strings with a dominant decay channel into gravitational radiation.
• This indicates that cosmic strings are generically sources of both high-energy particles and gravitational waves.