Gravitational wave bursts from cosmic strings

2000/04/26 by Thibault Damour, Alexander Vilenkin
Physics and Astronomy · #gr-qc #astro-ph #hep-ph #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.85.3761

published as Phys.Rev.Lett.85:3761-3764,2000 · 4 pages, revtex, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Letters

arxiv created 2000/04/26 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30

Abstract

Cusps of cosmic strings emit strong beams of high-frequency gravitational waves (GW). As a consequence of these beams, the stochastic ensemble of gravitational waves generated by a cosmological network of oscillating loops is strongly non Gaussian, and includes occasional sharp bursts that stand above the rms GW background. These bursts might be detectable by the planned GW detectors LIGO/VIRGO and LISA for string tensions as small as G μ∼ 10^-13. The GW bursts discussed here might be accompanied by Gamma Ray Bursts.

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