Chiral cosmic strings in supergravity

Abstract

We consider F and D-term cosmic strings formed in supersymmetric theories. Supersymmetry is broken inside the string core, but restored outside. In global SUSY, this implies the existence of goldstino zero modes, and the string potentially carries fermionic currents. We show that these zero modes do not survive the coupling to gravity, due to the super Higgs mechanism. Therefore the superconductivity and chirality properties are different in global and local supersymmetry. For example, a string formed at the end of D-term inflation is chiral in supergravity but non-chiral in global SUSY.