Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 1609.05068

Evidence of Cosmic Strings by the Observation of the Alignment of Quasar Polarization Axes on Mpc scale

Reinoud Jan Slagter
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We find a emergent azimuthal-angle dependency of the Nielsen-Olesen vortices in the general relativistic situation just after the symmetry breaking at GUT-scale. Using a high-frequency perturbation method, we obtain in the first and second order perturbation equations $\varphi$-dependent terms left over after the phase transition of the Higgs field. Vortices with high multiplicity decay into a lattice with entangled Abrikosov vortices. The stability of this lattice of correlated flux $n=1$ vortices with preferred azimuthal-angle is guaranteed by the contribution from the bulk spacetime by means of the warp factor: the cosmic string becomes super-massive for some time during the evolution and initiates the excitations of the vortices to high multiplicity. The correlation will not fade away during the expansion by the warp factor. We used this azimuthal-angle correlation for the explanation of the recently observed alignment of polarization axes of quasars in large quasar groups. The detailed behavior of this alignment can be explained with our model. The two different orientations perpendicular to each other in quasars groups of less richness could be a second order effect in our model. There is a striking similarity between this phase transition of the gauged Higgs field and the temporarily breaking of the axially symmetry of self-gravitating cosmic string, by the appearance of non-diagonal energy-momentum tensor components. The eccentricity of the ellipsoid can be seen as order parameter. Recovery to SO(2) symmetry induces emission of gravitational and electro-magnetic radiation. More data of high-redshift quasars will be needed in order to test the second order effect predicted in our model.

Explore related subjects

gr-qc

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

Reinoud Jan Slagter. 2016-09-16. Evidence of Cosmic Strings by the Observation of the Alignment of Quasar Polarization Axes on Mpc scale. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1038103

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Electrovacuum Black Hole Uniqueness

We prove the black hole uniqueness conjecture in the axially symmetric, stationary, electrovacuum setting, subject to the refined asymptotic analysis of the associated singular harmonic maps, which includes an analyticity hypothesis at the axes. More precisely, it is shown that any asymptotically flat solution of the Einstein--Maxwell equations in this class, with more than one black hole horizon component is either: Majumdar--Papapetrou, up to a duality rotation, in which case all logarithmic angle defects vanish, or every finite axis rod logarithmic angle defect is strictly negative and hence every interaction force is strictly attractive. The proof extends the singular harmonic map method used for vacuum Kerr uniqueness in [18].

gr-qc↗
arXiv2026

Constraining Modified Mass-to-Horizon Cosmology Through Primordial Inflationary Observables

We investigate slow-roll inflation in a modified cosmological framework inspired by a generalized mass-to-horizon relation (MHR), $M=\gamma {c^2 L^n}/{G}$, where $n$ is a real parameter and $\gamma$ a dimensional constant. Using Padmanabhan's emergence paradigm, we derive the modified Friedmann equations for a flat FRW universe and analyze the dynamics of a canonical scalar field (inflaton) under the slow-roll approximation. We study the resulting inflationary phenomenology for power-law and Starobinsky potentials. For power-law potentials, the MHR modification fails to reconcile these models with current CMB constraints on $r$ and $n_s$. In contrast, Starobinsky inflation exhibits significant sensitivity to deviations from $n=1$. A perturbative analysis ($n=1+\Delta$) yields corrections to inflationary observables. We observe that the scalar power-spectrum normalization, under a fixed-Starobinsky prescription, imposes the stringent constraint $0.960 \lesssim n \lesssim 1.040$ for $N=60$ efolds. This is considerably tighter than spectral-index bounds. Our results establish inflation, particularly Starobinsky-like models, as a sensitive probe of generalized horizon thermodynamics and departures from standard MHR scaling.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2026

Improving the Sensitivity of Gravitational Wave Detection with Weighted Conformal Prediction

In the last decade, kilometre-scale interferometric gravitational-wave detectors have observed hundreds of compact binary mergers, the majority of which are binary black holes. However, the data are noise-dominated, and multiple independent search algorithms (pipelines) are used to enhance sensitivity and improve robustness. Rather than the standard approach of selecting the most significant pipeline output, we combine the outputs from all pipelines using a conformal prediction-based framework to provide statistically rigorous confidence estimates for candidate events. While combining pipelines improves sensitivity and ranking robustness, it requires a principled statistical framework that remains valid as data properties evolve across observing runs. A key challenge is distribution shifts between simulated datasets used for training and calibration and the real, unlabelled, observations used for testing, which can invalidate coverage guarantees and bias confidence estimates. In this work, we address this challenge by incorporating likelihood-ratio reweighting into our conformal prediction framework to account for covariate shift. Using mock datasets containing simulated signals, we demonstrate that weighted conformal prediction restores well-calibrated coverage under covariate shift and increases the confidence of events near the detection threshold, recovering true signals that would otherwise be missed.

gr-qc↗