Gravitational Wave Gastronomy

<!--HTML-->The symmetry breaking of grand unified gauge groups in the early universe often leaves behind relic topological defects such as cosmic strings, domain walls, or monopoles. For some symmetry breaking chains, hybrid defects can form where cosmic strings attach to domain walls or monopoles attach to strings. In general, such hybrid defects are unstable and can leave behind unique gravitational wave fingerprints. In this talk, I will discuss the gravitational wave spectrum from 1) the destruction of a cosmic string network by the nucleation of monopoles which cut up and `eat’ the strings, 2) the collapse and decay of a monopole-string network by strings that ‘eat’ the monopoles, 3) the destruction of a domain wall network by the nucleation of string-bounded holes on the wall that expand and `eat’ the wall, and 4) the collapse and decay of a string-bounded wall network by walls that `eat’ the strings, with a particular focus on the latter for this talk. We call the gravitational wave signals produced from the `eating’ of one topological defect by another “gravitational wave gastronomy”. We find that the gravitational wave gastronomy signals considered yield unique spectra, typically at ultra high frequencies, that can be used to narrow down the SO(10) symmetry breaking chain to the Standard Model and the scales of symmetry breaking associated with the consumed topological defects.