Relic gravitational waves from cosmic strings: Updated constraints and opportunities for detection

R. R. Caldwell, R. A. Battye, E. P S Shellard

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    We examine the spectrum of gravitational radiation emitted by a network of cosmic strings, with emphasis on the observational constraints and the opportunities for detection. The analysis improves over past work, as we use a phenomenological model for the radiation spectrum emitted by a cosmic string loop. This model attempts to include the effect of the gravitational back reaction on the radiation emission by an individual loop with a high frequency cutoff in the spectrum. Comparison of the total spectrum due to a network of strings with the recently improved bound on the amplitude of a stochastic gravitational wave background, due to measurements of noise in pulsar signal arrival times, allows us to exclude a range of values of μ, the cosmic string linear mass density, for certain values of cosmic string and cosmological parameters. We find the conservative bound Gμ/c2
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)7146-7152
    Number of pages6
    JournalPhysical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
    Volume54
    Issue number12
    Publication statusPublished - 15 Dec 1996

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Relic gravitational waves from cosmic strings: Updated constraints and opportunities for detection'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this