GRAVITATIONAL-FIELD AROUND SPACELIKE AND TIME-LIKE CURRENT-CARRYING COSMIC STRINGS

The metric around a current-carrying superconducting cosmic string of the Witten type is estimated for both timelike and spacelike currents by means of a matching at the string radius with the most general stat ic and cylindrically symmetric vacuum solution of the Einstein-Maxwell equations. This solution depends on four parameters which are compute d numerically in the weak field limit as functions of the string state parameter. Finally, the equations of motion for test and charged part icles are derived and the bending of light rays is calculates to first order in the Newton constant.