Inflation and Nonsingular Spacetimes of Cosmic Strings

Inflation of cosmic gauge and global strings is investigated by numerically solving the combined Einstein and field equations. Above some critical symmetry-breaking scales, the strings undergo inflation along the radial direction as well as the axial direction at the core. The nonsingular nature of the spacetimes around supercritical gauge and global strings is discussed and contrasted to the singular static solutions that have been discussed in the literature. PACS number(s): 98.80.Cq, 04.20.Gz Typeset using REVTEX Electronic address: [email protected] 1