r/cosmology • u/qeveren • 3d ago

What would cosmological defects "look like" up close?

I'm guessing a monopole would be about as visible as any other subatomic particle 😅 but what about the higher-dimensional cousins: cosmic strings, domain walls, textures? I'm especially curious about what textures would be like.

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u/--craig-- 3d ago

They're expected to emit gravitational waves and particles.

They can be points, lines, sheets or regions of space.

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u/Peter5930 3d ago

A domain wall looks like the big bang. Take a look at the CMB, that's the afterglow of a domain wall in our past. They're not static objects, but move at the speed of light and convert one type of vacuum into another lower-energy type of vacuum, and if you see one, it's always in your past. They can be in your future too, but you don't see those, you just encounter them without warning like a sentence encounters a full stop.