Thesis

Coding the Cosmos: A New Generation of Superstring Simulations

• Call:

  IDPASC Portugal - PHD Programme 2015

• Academic Year:

  2015 / 2016

• Domains:

  Theoretical Particle Physics | Cosmology

• Supervisor:

  Carlos Martins

• Co-Supervisor:

• Institution:

  Universidade do Porto

• Host Institution:

  CAUP

• Abstract:

  Cosmic strings arise naturally in many proposed theories of new physics beyond the standard model unifying the electroweak and strong interactions, as well as in many superstring inspired inflation models. In the latter case, fundamental superstrings produced in the very early universe may have stretched to macroscopic scales, in which case they are known as cosmic superstrings. If observed, these objects thus provide a unique window into the early universe and possibly string theory. The recently released Planck results highlight how some of these scenarios can be constrained by high-resolution data. However, they also show that the current bottleneck is the lack of accurate high-resolution simulations of defect networks that can be used as templates for detailed statistical analysis. This is expected to be an even bigger problem for next-generation facilities such as COrE+ and eLISA. The goal of this thesis will thus be to go significantly beyond the state-of-the-art and develop and implement a new generation of high-scalability HPC defect codes that will be able to match the sensitivity of forthcoming observational searches.