GENERAL 2-HARMONIC COSMIC STRING

A five-parameter cosmic string is presented as the most general string which contains only first and third harmonics, along with a short derivation thereof. It is explicitly shown to contain all previous examples as subsets, and finally answers the question of self-intersection percentages for this string class. The percentage of parameter space corresponding to self-intersections is examined by numerical methods and is shown to be substantially increased relative to representations with fewer parameters. This percentage remains consistent with current galaxy-formation scenarios. The angular momentum and "shrinkage" of this string are also discussed. © 1990 The American Physical Society.