Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: We consider a population of small, high-velocity cosmic string loops. We assume the typical length of these loops is determined by the gravitational radiation scale and use the results of Polchinski and Rocha which pointed out their highly relativistic nature. A study of the gravitational wave emission from such a population is carried out. The large Lorentz boost involved causes the lowest harmonics of the loops to fall within the frequency band of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory detector. Because of this feature the gravitational waves emitted by such loops can be detected in a periodic search rather than in burst or stochastic analysis. It is shown that, for interesting values of the string tension (${10}^{\ensuremath{-}10}\ensuremath{\lesssim}G\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\lesssim}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}8}$), the detector can observe loops at reasonably high redshifts and that detection is, in principle, possible. We compute the number of expected observations produced by such a process. For a 10 h search we find that this number is of order $O({10}^{\ensuremath{-}4})$. This is a consequence of the low effective number density of the loops traveling along the line of sight. However, small probabilities of reconnection and longer observation times can improve the result.
Authors: Florian Dubath, Jorge V. Rocha
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1985454008