Some Physicists See Signs of Cosmic Strings From the Big Bang

Cosmologists think that at the beginning of the universe, all the forces of nature were, for a brief fraction of a second, unified. But as the universe expanded and cooled, this superforce condensed into its familiar parts: gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and weak forces.

According to some calculations, the cosmos might have cooled so quickly that the fabric of space-time became fractured, creating a network of whisper-thin tubes filled by pure energy that stretch across the breadth of the observable universe.

This is one possible origin story of cosmic strings.

Predicted in the 1970s, cosmic strings have long been beyond the reach of experiment. Now, though, some physicists think they have glimpsed the first evidence that these giant one-dimensional structures exist.