Superconducting cosmic strings

Abstract

Superconducting cosmic strings produce a variety of effects, such as spectral distortion of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), early reionization, linearly polarized radio transients and ultra high energy cosmic ray bursts, in addition to the well known gravitational wave signals and CMB anisotropies. I will argue that these effects can be seen in the CMB distortion (PIXIE), radio transient experiments (LOFAR, SKA) and at the future neutrino telescopes (JEM-EUSO, LOFAR, SKA), and can be complimentary to the gravitational wave experiments (LIGO, eLISA) and CMB anisotropy observations. If none of these effects are seen within a few years, very stringent constraints can be put on superconducting cosmic strings. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.