Dynamic Cosmic Strings II: Numerical evolution of excited Cosmic Strings

Abstract

An implicit, fully characteristic, numerical scheme for solving the field equations of a cosmic string coupled to gravity is described. The inclusion of null infinity as part of the numerical grid allows us to apply suitable boundary conditions on the metric and matter fields to suppress unphysical divergent solutions. The code is tested by comparing the results with exact solutions, checking that static cosmic string initial data remain constant when evolved and undertaking a time dependent convergence analysis of the code. It is shown that the code is accurate, stable and exhibits clear second order convergence. The code is used to analyse the interaction between a Weber--Wheeler pulse of gravitational radiation with the string. The interaction causes the string to oscillate at frequencies inversely proportional to the masses of the scalar and vector fields of the string. After the pulse has largely radiated away the string continues to ring but the oscillations slowly decay and eventually the variables return to their static values.