Cosmic Strings in Supergravity

Abstract

It is pointed out that various types of cosmic string solutions that exist in nonsupersymmetric and globally supersymmetric theories, such as D-type gauge strings, F-type global and gauge strings, and superconducting Witten strings, also exist in supergravity models. When the D term and superpotential satisfy some simple conditions allowing the determination of a set of vacuum states with nontrivial topology, the existence of a string embedded within a supersymmetric vacuum with vanishing cosmological constant can be inferred. Supergravity also admits other string solutions, some of which have no counterparts in globally supersymmetric theories.