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### 12.01.2021 (Tuesday)

#### Probing the scale of grand unification with gravitational waves

Regular Seminar Valerie Domcke (CERN and EPFL, Lausanne)

 at: 13:30 ICroom zoom 871 9223 5980 abstract: Cosmic strings arise as remnants of phase transitions in the early Universe, often related to theories of grand unification (GUTs). If such a phase transitions occurs at high energies, the resulting cosmic string network generates a sizable amount of gravitational waves. Most work so far has focused on the gravitational wave signal from topologically stable cosmic strings. In this talk I will introduce metastable cosmic strings, which are a generic consequence of many GUTs. I will discuss how this idea can be probed in various ongoing and upcoming gravitational wave experiments, from pulsar timing arrays to space- and ground-based interferometers. In the final part of my talk I will discuss a recent proposal on using the radio telescopes to probe this and other sources of ultra high frequency gravitational waves. [please email a.held@imperial.ac.uk for zoom link or password]