Gamma Ray Bursts from Ordinary Cosmic Strings

Abstract

We give an upper estimate for the number of gamma ray bursts from ordinary (non-superconducting) cosmic strings expected to be observed at terrestrial detectors. Assuming that cusp annihilation is the mechanism responsible for the bursts we consider strings arising at a GUT phase transition and compare our estimate with the recent BATSE results. Further we give a lower limit for the effective area of future detectors designed to detect the cosmic string induced flux of gamma ray bursts.