Gravitational wave 'memories' could help us find elusive cosmic strings

[Seldom Bucket]

Many theories of the early universe predict that the cosmos should be flooded with cracks in space-time, called cosmic strings, but no cosmic strings have been detected yet. Now, a new proposal suggests that we may need to look for them not through traditional astronomy, but through their gravitational-wave signature, which may persist in space-time long after the cosmic string has vanished.

When the universe wasn't even a second old, it underwent the most radical and transformative phase transitions of its existence — a feat not repeated even until the present day, billions of years later. These phase transitions completely reorganized the universe as the (hypothetical) unified force splintered off into the separate fundamental forces: gravity, the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force and electromagnetism.

Gravitational wave 'memories' could help us find elusive cosmic strings

A new proposal suggests that we may need to look for the cracks in space-time astrophysicists call cosmic strings not through traditional astronomy, but through their gravitational-wave signature, which may persist in space-time long after the cosmic string has vanished.

www.space.com