Cosmic Strings Collision in Cosmological Backgrounds

Abstract

The collisions of cosmic strings loops and the dynamics of junctions formations in expanding backgrounds are studied. The key parameter controlling the dynamics of junctions formation, the cosmic strings zipping and unzipping is the relative size of the loops compared to the Hubble expansion rate at the time of collision. We study analytically and numerically these processes for large super-horizon size loops, for small sub-horizon size loops as well as for loops with the radii comparable to the Hubble expansion rate at the time of collision.