Hunting for Cosmic Strings through Gravitational Waves

by Ivan Rybak

Wednesday 25 Jun 2025, 12:00 → 13:00 Europe/Madrid

IFAE Seminar Room (In-Person)

The early universe involved high-energy processes that could offer
valuable insights into fundamental physics. Among the predictions of
various high-energy models are cosmic strings - topological defects
capable of producing distinctive gravitational wave signals. These
signatures are becoming accessible thanks to current and upcoming
gravitational wave observatories.

In this talk, I will discuss predictions for the stochastic
gravitational wave background from Nambu-Goto cosmic strings and
highlight some remaining theoretical challenges. I will also explore
superconducting cosmic strings as a natural extension, emphasizing how
their interactions with external fields can alter gravitational wave
emission. These effects have important implications for interpreting
data from pulsar timing arrays and space-based detectors like LISA.