Cosmic strings and electroweak baryogenesis

Abstract The electroweak symmetry is unbroken in the core of cosmic strings originating from a symmetry breaking at an energy higher than the electroweak scale η EW . The dynamics of such strings may generate a baryon asymmetry below the electroweak symmetry breaking scale. This mechanism for electroweak baryogenesis is most efficient if the scale of string formation is only slightly higher than η EW (e.g. in theories of dynamical symmetry breaking) and if the strings are superconducting. The mechanism is also effective if the electroweak phase transition is second order.