Gravitational Waves From an Entangled SO(3) Cosmic String Network
Abstract
Discrete non-Abelian symmetries such as A4 are widely used in models of lepton flavor to explain neutrino mass hierarchy and their large mixing. If such a symmetry arises from the spontaneous breaking of a continuous group, cosmic strings can form. We study the breaking SO(3)→ A4, for which the strings are classified by the non-Abelian group π1(SO(3)/A4)≅ T', the binary tetrahedral group. Because the string fluxes do not commute, colliding strings may reconnect, pass through each other, or become joined by a bridge whose flux can belong to a different string network. We derive the probabilities of these outcomes directly from the group structure; in network models they are usually treated as free parameters. Including them in a multi-network velocity-dependent one-scale model, we find that the correlation length of the networks decreases and their energy density increases relative to Abelian U(1) strings of the same tension. The resulting stochastic gravitational-wave background is enhanced by up to nearly three orders of magnitude, showing that the algebraic structure of π1 leaves a direct imprint on the gravitational-wave spectrum.
Related
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BibTeX
@misc{chen2026gravitational,
title = {{Gravitational Waves From an Entangled SO(3) Cosmic String Network}},
author = {Mu-Chun Chen and Cameron Moffett-Smith},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.30360},
eprint = {2610.30360},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.30360},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Gravitational Waves From an Entangled SO(3) Cosmic String Network
AU - Mu-Chun Chen
AU - Cameron Moffett-Smith
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.30360
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.30360
AB - Discrete non-Abelian symmetries such as A_4 are widely used in models of lepton flavor to explain neutrino mass hierarchy and their large mixing. If such a symmetry arises from the spontaneous breaking of a continuous group, cosmic strings can form. We study the breaking SO(3)→ A_4, for which the strings are classified by the non-Abelian group π_1(SO(3)/A_4)≅ T', the binary tetrahedral group. Because the string fluxes do not commute, colliding strings may reconnect, pass through each other, or become joined by a bridge whose flux can belong to a different string network. We derive the probabilities of these outcomes directly from the group structure; in network models they are usually treated as free parameters. Including them in a multi-network velocity-dependent one-scale model, we find that the correlation length of the networks decreases and their energy density increases relative to Abelian U(1) strings of the same tension. The resulting stochastic gravitational-wave background is enhanced by up to nearly three orders of magnitude, showing that the algebraic structure of π_1 leaves a direct imprint on the gravitational-wave spectrum.
ER -