Dynamics of cosmic strings and springs; a covariant formulation

TL;DR

This paper develops a covariant framework for analyzing the dynamics of charge-current carrying cosmic strings, especially circular configurations, and relates these results to previous models via a duality transformation.

Contribution

It introduces a covariant formulation for cosmic string dynamics and connects it to existing models through a novel duality transformation.

Findings

Circular string dynamics described by simple Hamiltonians

Duality relates new results to previous stationary string models

Framework applicable in arbitrary axially symmetric backgrounds

Abstract

A general family of charge-current carrying cosmic string models is investigated. In the special case of circular configurations in arbitrary axially symmetric gravitational and electromagnetic backgrounds the dynamics is determined by simple point particle Hamiltonians. A certain "duality" transformation relates our results to previous ones, obtained by Carter et. al., for an infinitely long open stationary string in an arbitrary stationary background.