Particle emission and gravitational radiation from cosmic strings:
  observational constraints
  We account for particle emission and gravitational radiation from cosmic
string loops to determine their effect on the loop distribution and
observational signatures of strings. The effect of particle emission is that
the number density of loops no longer scales. This results in a high frequency
cutoff on the stochastic gravitational wave background, but we show that the
expected cutoff is outside the range of current and planned detectors. Particle
emission from string loops also produces a diffuse gamma ray background that is
sensitive to the presence of kinks and cusps on the loops. However, both for
kinks and cusps, and with mild assumptions about particle physics interactions,
current diffuse gamma-ray background observations do not constrain $G\mu$.
