Cosmic strings and the large-scale structure of the Universe.

Abstract

We wish to demonstrate that the recently discovered large-scale structure of the Universe (voids and filaments) can be explained by cosmic strings. We also predict the presence of pointlike structures ("knobs") of $\mathrm{masses}>{10}^{7}{M}_{\ensuremath{\circledcirc}}$ in the vicinity of larger galaxies. The present analysis is limited to order-of-magnitude estimates. A detailed analysis would necessarily have to go into the full nonlinear theory of the growth of fluctuations in the Universe.