Monopole-antimonopole: interaction, scattering and creation
The interaction of a magnetic monopole-antimonopole pair depends on their separation as well as on a second 'twist' degree of freedom. This novel interaction leads to a non-trivial bound state solution known as a sphaleron and to scattering in which the monopole-antimonopoles bounce off ea...
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Published in | Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences Vol. 377; no. 2161; p. 20190143 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
The Royal Society Publishing
30.12.2019
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The interaction of a magnetic monopole-antimonopole pair depends on their separation as well as on a second 'twist' degree of freedom. This novel interaction leads to a non-trivial bound state solution known as a sphaleron and to scattering in which the monopole-antimonopoles bounce off each other and do not annihilate. The twist degree of freedom also plays a role in numerical experiments in which gauge waves collide and create monopole-antimonopole pairs. Similar gauge wavepacket scatterings in the Abelian-Higgs model lead to the production of string loops that may be relevant to superconductors. Ongoing numerical experiments to study the production of electroweak sphalerons that result in changes in the Chern-Simons number, and hence baryon number, are also described but have not yet met with success. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Topological avatars of new physics'. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 USDOE Office of Science (SC) SC0018330 One contribution of 14 to a discussion meeting issue ‘Topological avatars of new physics’. |
ISSN: | 1364-503X 1471-2962 |
DOI: | 10.1098/rsta.2019.0143 |