We provide a general overview of the velocity-dependent one-scale model for cosmic string evolution and discuss two further extensions to it. We introduce and justify a new ansatz for the momentum parameter k, and also incorporate the effect of radiation back reaction. We thus discuss the evolution of the basic large-scale features of cosmic string networks in all relevant cosmological scenarios, concentrating in particular on the “scaling” solutions relevant for each case. In a companion paper, we show, by comparing with numerical simulations, that this model provides an accurate description of the large-scale features of cosmic string networks.

• Received 30 March 2000

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.65.043514