2:30pm Monday January 18 in Curia II
Cusps in cosmic strings are a potential source of high-energy cosmic rays, and have been suggested as an explanation for gamma ray bursts. To investigate cusp radiation, we have performed a field theory simulation of the Abelian-Higgs string. The simulation shows the portion of the strings which overlaps near the cusp released as radiation. The energy release scales as sqrt(rL), where r is the string radius and L is a parameter of cosmological size. This is much smaller than the previously reported r^(1/3) L^(2/3), because of the effect of Lorentz contraction on the string core, and would not lead to observable radiation.