| Introduction | p. ix |
| Cosmic strings and broken gauge symmetries | p. 1 |
| Electromagnetism as a local gauge theory | p. 3 |
| Electroweak unification | p. 8 |
| The Nielsen--Olesen vortex string | p. 15 |
| Strings as relics of the Big Bang | p. 24 |
| The Nambu action | p. 27 |
| The elements of string dynamics | p. 35 |
| Describing a zero-thickness cosmic string | p. 35 |
| The equation of motion | p. 38 |
| Gauge conditions, periodicity and causal structure | p. 41 |
| Conservation laws in symmetric spacetimes | p. 44 |
| Invariant length | p. 48 |
| Cusps and curvature singularities | p. 49 |
| Intercommuting and kinks | p. 54 |
| String dynamics in flat space | p. 59 |
| The aligned standard gauge | p. 59 |
| The GGRT gauge | p. 61 |
| Conservation laws in flat space | p. 63 |
| Initial-value formulation for a string loop | p. 68 |
| Periodic solutions in the spinor representation | p. 70 |
| The Kibble--Turok sphere and cusps and kinks in flat space | p. 73 |
| Field reconnection at a cusp | p. 80 |
| Self-intersection of a string loop | p. 85 |
| Secular evolution of a string loop | p. 92 |
| A bestiary of exact solutions | p. 99 |
| Infinite strings | p. 99 |
| The infinite straight string | p. 99 |
| Travelling-wave solutions | p. 100 |
| Strings with paired kinks | p. 102 |
| Helical strings | p. 103 |
| Some simple planar loops | p. 105 |
| The collapsing circular loop | p. 105 |
| The doubled rotating rod | p. 106 |
| The degenerate kinked cuspless loop | p. 107 |
| Cat's-eye strings | p. 108 |
| Balloon strings | p. 112 |
| Harmonic loop solutions | p. 114 |
| Loops with one harmonic | p. 114 |
| Loops with two unmixed harmonics | p. 117 |
| Loops with two mixed harmonics | p. 122 |
| Loops with three or more harmonics | p. 127 |
| Stationary rotating solutions | p. 130 |
| Three toy solutions | p. 135 |
| The teardrop string | p. 135 |
| The cardioid string | p. 137 |
| The figure-of-eight string | p. 141 |
| String dynamics in non-flat backgrounds | p. 144 |
| Strings in Robertson--Walker spacetimes | p. 144 |
| Straight string solutions | p. 145 |
| Ring solutions | p. 147 |
| Strings near a Schwarzschild black hole | p. 152 |
| Ring solutions | p. 153 |
| Static equilibrium solutions | p. 157 |
| Scattering and capture of a straight string by a Schwarzschild hole | p. 159 |
| Ring solutions in the Kerr metric | p. 167 |
| Static equilibrium configurations in the Kerr metric | p. 170 |
| Strings in plane-fronted-wave spacetimes | p. 177 |
| Cosmic strings in the weak-field approximation | p. 181 |
| The weak-field formalism | p. 182 |
| Cusps in the weak-field approximation | p. 185 |
| Kinks in the weak-field approximation | p. 189 |
| Radiation of gravitational energy from a loop | p. 191 |
| Calculations of radiated power | p. 196 |
| Power from cuspless loops | p. 197 |
| Power from the Vachaspati--Vilenkin loops | p. 199 |
| Power from the p/q harmonic solutions | p. 202 |
| Power radiated by a helical string | p. 204 |
| Radiation from long strings | p. 208 |
| Radiation of linear and angular momentum | p. 211 |
| Linear momentum | p. 211 |
| Angular momentum | p. 213 |
| Radiative efficiencies from piecewise-linear loops | p. 219 |
| The piecewise-linear approximation | p. 219 |
| A minimum radiative efficiency? | p. 223 |
| The field of a collapsing circular loop | p. 226 |
| The back-reaction problem | p. 231 |
| General features of the problem | p. 231 |
| Self-acceleration of a cosmic string | p. 234 |
| Back-reaction and cusp displacement | p. 240 |
| Numerical results | p. 242 |
| The gravitational field of an infinite straight string | p. 246 |
| The metric due to an infinite straight string | p. 246 |
| Properties of the straight-string metric | p. 250 |
| The Geroch--Traschen critique | p. 252 |
| Is the straight-string metric unstable to changes in the equation of state? | p. 255 |
| A distributional description of the straight-string metric | p. 259 |
| The self-force on a massive particle near a straight string | p. 263 |
| The straight-string metric in 'asymptotically-flat' form | p. 267 |
| Multiple straight strings and closed timelike curves | p. 271 |
| Straight strings and 2 + 1 gravity | p. 271 |
| Boosts and rotations of systems of straight strings | p. 273 |
| The Gott construction | p. 274 |
| String holonomy and closed timelike curves | p. 278 |
| The Letelier--Gal'tsov spacetime | p. 282 |
| Other exact string metrics | p. 286 |
| Strings and travelling waves | p. 286 |
| Strings from axisymmetric spacetimes | p. 291 |
| Strings in a Robertson--Walker universe | p. 292 |
| A string through a Schwarzschild black hole | p. 297 |
| Strings coupled to a cosmological constant | p. 301 |
| Strings in radiating cylindrical spacetimes | p. 303 |
| The cylindrical formalism | p. 303 |
| Separable solutions | p. 305 |
| Strings in closed universes | p. 307 |
| Radiating strings from axisymmetric spacetimes | p. 310 |
| Einstein--Rosen soliton waves | p. 316 |
| Two-mode soliton solutions | p. 321 |
| Snapping cosmic strings | p. 324 |
| Snapping strings in flat spacetimes | p. 324 |
| Other spacetimes containing snapping strings | p. 329 |
| Strong-field effects of zero-thickness strings | p. 332 |
| Spatial geometry outside a stationary loop | p. 334 |
| Black-hole formation from a collapsing loop | p. 340 |
| Properties of the near gravitational field of a cosmic string | p. 343 |
| A 3 + 1 split of the metric near a cosmic string | p. 346 |
| General formalism | p. 346 |
| Some sample near-field expansions | p. 349 |
| Series solutions of the near-field vacuum Einstein equations | p. 352 |
| Distributional stress--energy of the world sheet | p. 355 |
| Bibliography | p. 359 |
| Index | p. 367 |
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