Cosmic Strings

Bodo Schwabe

University of Zaragoza

with adaptive mesh refinement

Axion Strings 

strings = 1D-loops with phase changing 2pi around them

energy in phase gradient diverges - but decreasing modulus

Scale Separation

inter-string separation

string core size

axion decay constant

Hubble scale

10^{30}
  • Cosmic expansion increases separation (solution PRS strings)
  • not feasible on 3D uniform grids
  • possible solution: adaptive mesh refinement around 1D strings (2048^3 root grid and 6 additional levels -> 11 e-folds)
    [Buschmann et.al. arXiv:2108.05368]

[Drew, Shellard, arXiv:1910.01718]

Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR)

  • Tag cells for refinement using string plaquettes [ Leesa Fleury, Guy D. Moore,  2015, arXiv:1509.00026 ] or gradients
  • create new grids with progressively more resolution on higher levels
  • Use MPI communication to transfer interpolated data between grids and levels
  • subcycling: use smaller time steps on higher resolved levels
  • possibly use different methods on different levels 

We extended AxioNyx for AMR string simulations

Use AMR to keep string resolution fixed

[Buschmann et.al. arXiv:2108.05368]

AMR can improve current extrapolations

[Gorghetto et.al., arXiv: 1806.04677, 2007.04990 ]

[Buschmann et.al. arXiv:2108.05368]

[Buschmann et.al. arXiv:2108.05368]

q=1 \rightarrow m_a = 65 \pm 6 \mu eV

Potential issues

  • Interpolation between levels
  • higher frequency modes are discarded when propagating to coarser levels
  • Spectrum only calculated on coarsest level
  • lots of refinement if strings are too close together (physical strings are ideal as refinement levels increase while refined volume decreases)

Copy of axion string simulations

By bschwabe

Copy of axion string simulations

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