Searching for Superconducting Cosmic Strings

The cusp (or kink) of a superconducting cosmic string is expected to produce gravitational waves (GW) and electromagnetic radiation. Both the GW and the electromagnetic emissions are beamed along the direction of motion of the cusp, leading to an enhancement in the observed signal if the Earth lies within the beam. The electromagnetic luminosity may be substantially larger than the gravitational luminosity. It has been argued that searches in the radio spectrum would be optimal for the detection of these bursts. Such cosmic strings would be part of networks created during phase transitions in the early universe. These networks could even be composed of cosmic superstrings. We will present details of an ongoing search for such events by the Eight-meter-wavelength Transient Array (ETA).