The review is devoted to cosmic chiral vortices (strings) and their possible role in the evolution of the early Universe. An exact cylindrically-symmetric solution to Einstein equations was obtained within the SU(2) sigma model for a configuration with a topological charge of the degree type. The linearized stability of the solution with respect to radial perturbations is proven by Lyapunov's direct method. The metric found corresponds to the conical type with an angular deficiency proportional to the topological charge or the linear mass density of the vortex. The ray deflection angle close to the angular deficiency (the gravitational lens effect) was determined by direct integration of geodesic equations for the light ray orthogonal to the vortex. A gauge generalization of the model was considered involving the axially symmetric Yang-Mills field. In the approximation of the large topological charge, a solution with proper longitudinal magnetic field was obtained and the effect of a decrease in the vortex energy was found. The effect of closing the string was also considered in the approximation of the large closure radius. To this end, the toroidal moment of a closed string was calculated and an energy correction caused by the Skyrme term.
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