Sachiko Kuroyanagi (Nagoya University)

Sachiko Kuroyanagi Colloquium: Anisotropies in the gravitational wave background

Marsfield Lecture Theatre

Abstract

Anisotropies in the gravitational wave background as a probe of the cosmic string network.

Cosmic strings are one-dimensional topological defects, which arise naturally in scenarios of the early Universe, such as inflation based on string theory as well as phase transitions in field theories. Pulsar timing array is the powerful tool to search for the existence of cosmic strings through detection of gravitational waves, and could provide us with insights on those high energy theories. In this talk, I will present how pulsar timing arrays can be used to search for cosmic strings and what types of information we can obtain if we detect gravitational wave background from them. Furthermore I will show that we can extract more information on the cosmic string network by analyzing anisotropies in the gravitational wave background.