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Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto

Cosmic microwave background anisotropies generated by domain wall networks

L. Sousa, P. P. Avelino

Abstract
We develop a numerical tool for the fast computation of the temperature and polarization power spectra generated by domain wall networks, by extending the publicly available cmbact code—which calculates the cosmic microwave background signatures generated by active sources—to also describe domain wall networks. In order to achieve this, we adapt the unconnected segment model for cosmic strings to also describe domain wall networks, and use it to model the energy-momentum contribution of domain wall networks throughout their cosmological history. We use this new tool to compute and study the TT, EE, TE and BB power spectra generated by standard domain wall networks, and derive a conservative constraint on the energy scale of the domain wall-forming phase transition of η<0.92MeV (which is a slight improvement over the original Zel’dovich bound of 1 MeV).

Keywords
Particle-theory and field-theory models of the early Universe, Extended classical solutions, cosmic strings domain walls texture

Physical Review D
Volume 92, Page 083520
October 2015

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Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences

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