ABSTRACT
Kaiser-Stebbins effect (1984) Anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background generated by cosmic strings present after the time of the decoupling of the cosmic radiation. For a string moving transversely to the line of sight, light rays passing on opposite sides of the string will suffer different Doppler shifts. The result is then the existence of step-like blackbody effective temperature T discontinuities, with relative magnitude change on different sides of the string given by
δT /T = 8πGUγsnˆ · (vs × sˆ)
where γs is the relativistic Lorentz factor, vs is the string velocity with respect to the observer, sˆ is the string segment orientation and nˆ points in the direction of the line of sight. G is Newton’s constant, units are chosen so that h¯ = c = 1 and U is the (effective) mass per unit length of the (wiggly) cosmic string. See cosmic string, cosmic topological defect, deficit angle (cosmic string).
