Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays from Topological Defects --- Cosmic Strings, Monopoles, Necklaces, and All That

The topological defect scenario of origin of the observed highest energy cosmic rays is reviewed. Under a variety of circumstances, topological defects formed in the early Universe can be sources of very massive particles in the Universe today. The decay products of these massive particles may be responsible for the observed highest energy cosmic ray particles above $10^{20}$ eV. Some massive particle production processes involving cosmic strings and magnetic monopoles are discussed. We also discuss the implications of results of certain recent numerical simulations of evolution of cosmic strings. These results (which remain to be confirmed by independent simulations) seem to show that massive particle production may be a generic feature of cosmic strings, which would make cosmic strings an inevitable source of extremely high energy cosmic rays with potentially detectable flux. At the same time, cosmic strings are severely constrained by the observed cosmic ray flux above $10^{20}$ eV, if massive particle radiation is the dominant energy loss mechanism for cosmic strings.Comment: Latex, 27 pages, including 1 ps fig. Invited talk given at the Workshop on ``Observing the Highest Energy Particles ($> 10^{20}$ eV) from Space'', College Park, Maryland, USA, November 13 -- 15, 1997, to be published in the proceedings (AIP

Cosmic strings and ultra-high energy cosmic rays

The flux is calculated of ultrahigh energy protons due to the process of cusp evaporation from cosmic string loops. For the standard value of the dimensionless cosmic string parameter epsilon is identical to G(sub mu) approx. = 10(exp -6), the flux is several orders of magnitude below the observed cosmic ray flux of ultrahigh energy protons. However, the flux at any energy initially increases as the value of epsilon is decreased. This at first suggests that there may be a lower limit on the value of epsilon, which would imply a lower limit on the temperature of a cosmic string forming phase transition in the early universe. However, the calculation shows that this is not the case -- the particle flux at any energy reaches its highest value at epsilon approx. = 10(exp -15) and it then decreases for further decrease of the value of epsilon. This is due to the fact that for too small values of epsilon (less than 10(exp -15)), the energy loss of the loops through the cusp evaporation process itself (rather than gravitational energy loss of the loops) becomes the dominant factor that controls the behavior of the number density of the loops at the relevant times of emission of the particles. The highest flux at any energy remains at least four orders of magnitude below the observed flux. There is thus no lower limit on epsilon

Constraints on the synchrotron self-Compton mechanism of TeV gamma ray emission from the Milagro TeV source MGRO J2019+37 within the pulsar wind nebula scenario

Origin of the TeV gamma ray emission from MGRO J2019+37 discovered by the Milagro experiment is investigated within the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) scenario using multiwavelength information on sources suggested to be associated with this object. We find that the synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) mechanism of origin of the observed TeV gamma rays within the PWN scenario is severely constrained by the upper limit on the radio flux from the region around MGRO J2019+37 given by the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) as well as by the x-ray flux upper limit from SWIFT/XRT. Specifically, for the SSC mechanism to explain the observed TeV flux from MGRO J2019+37 without violating the GMRT and/or Swift/XRT flux upper limits in the radio and x-ray regions, respectively, the emission region must be extremely compact with the characteristic size of the emission region restricted to \lsim{\mathcal O}(10^{-4}\pc) for an assumed distance of $\sim$ few kpc to the source. This is at least four orders of magnitude less than the characteristic size of the emission region typically invoked in explaining the TeV emission through the SSC mechanism within the PWN scenario. On the other hand, inverse Compton (IC) scattering of the nebular high energy electrons on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons can, for reasonable ranges of values of various parameters, explain the observed TeV flux without violating the GMRT and/or SWIFT/XRT flux bounds.Comment: Replaced by revised version; 14 pages Latex, 2 Figures; title and abstract slightly changed to more faithfully reflect the content of the paper; text substantially modified and Figures changed; main conclusions remain unchanged; version accepted for publication in JHEA

B-L Cosmic strings and Baryogenesis

Cosmic strings arising from breaking of the $U(1)_{B-L}$ gauge symmetry that occurs in a wide variety of unified models can carry zero modes of heavy Majorana neutrinos. Decaying and/or repeatedly self-interacting closed loops of these ``$B-L$'' cosmic strings can be a non-thermal source of heavy right-handed Majorana neutrinos whose decay can contribute to the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe (BAU) via the leptogenesis route. The $B-L$ cosmic strings are expected in GUT models such as SO(10), where they can be formed at an intermediate stage of symmetry breaking well below the GUT scale $\sim 10^{16}$ GeV; such light strings are not excluded by the CMB anisotropy data and may well exist. We estimate the contribution of $B-L$ cosmic string loops to the baryon-to-photon ratio of the Universe in the light of current knowledge on neutrino masses and mixings implied by atmospheric and solar neutrino measurements. We find that $B-L$ cosmic string loops can contribute significantly to the BAU for $U(1)_{B-L}$ symmetry breaking scale \eta_{B-L}\gsim 1.7\times 10^{11}\gev. At the same time, in order for the contribution of decaying $B-L$ cosmic string loops not to exceed the observed baryon-to-photon ratio inferred from the recent WMAP results, the lightest heavy right-handed Majorana neutrino mass $M_1$ must satisfy the constraint M_1 \leq 2.4 \times 10^{12}(\eta_{B-L}/10^{13}\gev)^{1/2}\gev. This may have interesting implications for the associated Yukawa couplings in the heavy neutrino sector and consequently for the light neutrino masses generated through see-saw mechanism.Comment: match with the published versio

Direct detection of WIMPs : Implications of a self-consistent truncated isothermal model of the Milky Way's dark matter halo

Direct detection of Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) candidates of Dark Matter (DM) is studied within the context of a self-consistent truncated isothermal model of the finite-size dark halo of the Galaxy based on the "King model" of the phase space distribution function of collisionless DM particles. Our halo model takes into account the modifications of the phase-space structure of the halo due to the gravitational influence of the observed visible matter in a self-consistent manner. The parameters of the halo model are determined by a fit to a recently determined circular rotation curve of the Galaxy that extends up to $\sim$ 60 kpc. Unlike in the Standard Halo Model (SHM) customarily used in the analysis of the results of WIMP direct detection experiments, the velocity distribution of the WIMPs in our model is non-Maxwellian with a cut-off at a maximum velocity that is self-consistently determined by the model itself. For our halo model that provides the best fit to the rotation curve data, the 90% C.L. upper limit on the WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross section from the recent results of the CDMS-II experiment, for example, is \sim 5.3\times10^{-8}\pb at a WIMP mass of $\sim$ 71 GeV. We also find, using the original 2-bin annual modulation amplitude data of the DAMA experiment, that there exists a range of small WIMP masses, typically $\sim$ 2 -- 16 GeV, within which DAMA collaboration's claimed annual modulation signal purportedly due to WIMPs is compatible with the null results of other experiments. These results strengthen the possibility of low-mass (\lsim 10\gev) WIMPs as a candidate for dark matter as indicated by several earlier studies performed within the context of the SHM. A more rigorous analysis using DAMA bins over smaller intervals should be able to better constrain the "DAMA regions" in the WIMP parameter space within the context of our model.Comment: Title shortened, minor changes in abstract and text; results unchanged; 20 pages, Latex, 7 figures; version accepted for publication in JCA