Open Questions: Cosmic Strings

See also: Cosmic inflation -- Magnetic monopoles

Galaxy: Topological Defects: Categorized site directory. Entries usually include descriptive annotations.

Cosmic string: Article from Wikipedia. See also Topological defect.
String Revival: February 2005 Scientific American In Focus article, subtitled "Are cosmic strings behind unusual lensing effects?"
Cosmic Strings and Other Defects: Part of the Cambridge Cosmology site. Topics discussed include phase transitions in the early universe, cosmic string dynamics and evolution, cosmic string simulations, and the relation to large-scale structure.

Superconducting Cosmic Strings
Alejandro Gangui
American Scientist, May-June 2000, pp. 254-263: Cosmic strings are (if they exist) topological defects in spacetime that should have formed during a phase transition which occurred in the earliest instants of the Big Bang. If such defects actually exist, they may help explain such phenomena as galactic magnetic fields and very high-energy cosmic rays.
[Abstract and references]
Textures and Cosmic Structure
David N. Spergel; Neil G. Turok
Scientific American, March 1992, pp. 52-59: Topological defects in the early universe, such as cosmic strings and textures, may help explain density fluctuations of matter which eventually led to large scale structure in the present universe.
Cosmic Strings: Topological Fossils of the Hot Big Bang
William H. Press; David N. Spergel
Physics Today, March 1989, pp. 29-35: Some grand unified theories of elementary particles predict the existence of cosmic strings -- remnants of a phase transition at a temperature of 10²⁹ K a fraction of a second after the big bang. The continued existence even today of such remnants may be a result of a phenomenon known as "topological consservation".
Cosmic Strings
Alexander Vilenkin
Scientific American, December 1987, pp. 94-102: Cosmic strings are hypothesized thin, massive tubes of high-energy vacuum formed in a phase transition of the very early universe. They could account in part for the way galaxies have clustered.