Gravitational wave bursts from cosmic superstrings with Y-junctions

Abstract

Cosmic superstring loops generically contain strings of different tensions that meet at Y-junctions. These loops evolve nonperiodically in time, and have cusps and kinks that interact with the junctions. We study the effect of junctions on the gravitational wave signal emanating from cosmic string cusps and kinks. We find that earlier results on the strength of individual bursts from cusps and kinks on strings without junctions remain largely unchanged, but junctions give rise to additional contributions to the gravitational wave signal coming from strings expanding at the speed of light at a junction and kinks passing through a junction.