2019/12/31 by W. Buchmüller, Wilfried Buchmuller, Valerie Domcke +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Cosmic string #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark matter #Electroweak interaction #Grand Unified Theory #Gravitational wave #Gravitational wave background #Inflation (cosmology) #LIGO #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Physics beyond the Standard Model #String (physics) #Supersymmetry #Theoretical physics #astro-ph.CO #gr-qc #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2020.135764
published as Phys. Lett. B 809 (2020) 135764 · 6 pages, 3 figures. v2: updated references, matches version published in PLB
openalex created_date 2019/12/13 · openalex publication_date 2020/09/03 · arxiv created 2020/11/16 · arxiv updated 2020/11/18 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The spontaneous breaking of U(1)B−L around the scale of grand unification can simultaneously account for hybrid inflation, leptogenesis, and neutralino dark matter, thus resolving three major puzzles of particle physics and cosmology in a single predictive framework. The B−L phase transition also results in a network of cosmic strings. If strong and electroweak interactions are unified in an SO(10) gauge group, containing U(1)B−L as a subgroup, these strings are metastable. In this case, they produce a stochastic background of gravitational waves that evades current pulsar timing bounds, but features a flat spectrum with amplitude h2ΩGW∼10−8 at interferometer frequencies. Ongoing and future LIGO observations will hence probe the scale of B−L breaking.