Thesis

Coding the Cosmos: A New Generation of Superstring Simulations

• Call:

  IDPASC Portugal - PHD Programme 2016

• Academic Year:

  2016 / 2017

• Domain:

  Theoretical Particle Physics

• 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. Recent progress in CMB polarization and gravitational wave detection highlights 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 robust statistical analysis. This is expected to be an even bigger problem for next-generation facilities such as COrE+ and eLisa. This thesis will 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 ongoing and forthcoming observational searches. Recent relevant works include arXiv:1310.3614, arXiv:1312.2123, arXiv:1405.7722, arXiv:1407.3905 and arXiv:1602.01322.