CMB power spectrum of Nambu-Goto cosmic strings

Abstract

We improve predictions of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectrum induced by cosmic strings by using source terms obtained from Nambu-Goto network simulations in an expanding universe. We use three high-resolution cosmic string simulations that cover the entire period from recombination until late-time $\Lambda$ domination to calculate unequal time correlators (UETCs) for scalar, vector and tensor components of the cosmic-string energy-momentum tensor. We calculate the CMB angular power spectrum from strings in two ways. First, to aid comparison with previous work, we fit our simulated UETCs to those obtained from different parameter combinations from the unconnected segment model and then calculate the CMB power spectra using these parameters to represent the string network. Second and more accurately, we decompose the UETCs into their corresponding eigenvalues and eigenvectors and input them directly into an Einstein-Boltzmann solver to calculate the power spectrum for each of the three simulation time periods. We combine the three simulations together, using each of them in its relevant redshift range and we obtain overall power spectra in temperature and polarisation channels. Finally, we use the power spectra obtained with the latest Planck and BICEP2 likelihoods to obtain constraints on the cosmic string tension.