Cosmic strings and superconducting cosmic strings

The possible consequences of forming cosmic strings and superconducting cosmic strings in the early universe are discussed. Lecture 1 describes the group theoretic reasons for and the field theoretic reasons why cosmic strings can form in spontaneously broken gauge theories. Lecture 2 discusses the accretion of matter onto string loops, emphasizing the scenario with a cold dark matter dominated universe. In lecture 3 superconducting cosmic strings are discussed, as is a mechanism which leads to the formation of structure from such strings.