Clusters of galaxies from cosmic strings

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Abstract
Early discussion of the cosmic-string model of galaxy and cluster formation assumed a one-to-one correspondence between string loops of a given radius and cosmological objects of a given mass. In this paper the self-consistency of this simple picture is investigated and shown to be far from complete. We use Abell clusters as a benchmark to test this assumption, analytically estimating rms fluctuations in the Ω=1 cold-dark-matter model using random and correlated loop distributions. These results are compared with Monte Carlo simulations which are supplemented with systematic searches for large and rare overdensities. It is found that the majority of Abell clusters are not seeded by individual large loops, but by large mass concentrations of smaller loops. The implications for the cluster correlation function and for cluster morphology are discussed. The breakdown of this one-to-one correspondence is also apparent on galactic scales and mandates a revision of the standard cosmic-string scenario.

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