Probing Particle Physics from Top Down with Cosmic Strings

Making use of the wealth of new observational data coming from the sky it is possible to constrain particle physics theories beyond the Standard Model. One way to do this is illustrated in this article: a subset of theories admits cosmic string solutions, topologically stable matter field configurations. In these models, a network of cosmic strings inevitably forms in the early universe and persists to the present time. The gravitational effects of these strings leads to cosmological signatures which could be visible in current and future data. The magnitude of these signatures increases as the energy scale of the new physics involved in cosmic string formation increases. Thus, searching for cosmological signatures of strings is a way to probe particle physics model "from top down", as opposed to "from bottom up" as is done using data from accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider. Different ways of searching for cosmic strings are illustrated in this article. They include Cosmic Microwave Background temperature and polarization anisotropy maps, Large Scale Structure optical and infrared surveys, and 21cm intensity maps.