Related papers: Magnetic monopole - domain wall collisions
These lectures start with an elementary introduction to the subject of magnetic monopoles which should be accesible from any physics background. In the Weinberg-Salam model of electroweak interactions, magnetic monopoles appear at the ends…
Non-abelian gauge theories in the Higgs phase admit a startling variety of BPS solitons. These include domain walls, vortex strings, confined monopoles threaded on vortex strings, vortex strings ending on domain walls, monopoles threaded on…
In four dimensional N=2 supergravity theories, BPS bound states near marginal stability are described by configurations of widely separated constituents with nearly parallel central charges. When the vacuum moduli can be dialed…
We study static, spherically symmetric, composite global-local monopoles with a direct interaction term between the two sectors in the regime where the interaction potential is large. At some critical coupling the global defect disappears…
Magnetic monopoles are an inevitable feature of post-inflation symmetry-breaking phase transitions in grand unified theories. Analytic estimates of their density indicate that they are compatible with standard cosmology only if their mass…
Gauge symmetry breaking by boundary conditions on a manifold is known to be equivalent to Wilson-line breaking through a background gauge field, and is therefore spontaneous. These equivalent pictures are related by a non-periodic gauge…
Two known distinct examples of one-dimensional systems which are known to exhibit a phase transition are critically examined: (A) a lattice model with harmonic nearest-neighbor elastic interactions and an on-site Morse potential, and (B)…
In this Letter we study interacting systems with spontaneous discrete symmetry breaking, where the degenerate symmetry-broken states are topologically distinct gapped phases. Edge modes appear at domain walls between the two topological…
In this work we investigate the presence of magnetic monopoles that engender multimagnetic structures, which arise from an appropriate extension of the $\rm{SU(2)}$ gauge group. The investigation is based on a modified relativistic theory…
We study the phase diagram of a confining three-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric $\text{U}(N)\times\text{U}(N+M)$ theory with holographic dual corresponding to a known string theory solution. The theory possesses a global…
We reconsider the problem of electrically charged, massless fermions scattering off magnetic monopoles. The interpretation of the outgoing states has long been a puzzle as, in certain circumstances, they necessarily carry fractional quantum…
We study the D3/probe D5 system with two domain wall hypermultiplets. The conformal symmetry can be broken by a magnetic field, B, (or running coupling) which promotes condensation of the fermions on each individual domain wall. Separation…
We explore a variety of composite topological structures that arise from the spontaneous breaking of $SO(10)$ to $SU(3)_c \times U(1)_{em}$ via one of its maximal subgroups $SU(5) \times U(1)_\chi$, $SU(4)_c \times SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R$,…
A formulation of $\mathcal{N} = 2$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with a spacetime-dependent gauge coupling allows to study the breaking of conformal symmetry at the quantum level. The theory has an energy-momentum tensor that is only…
Transitions between different topologically ordered phases have been studied by artificially creating boundaries between these gapped phases and thus studying their effects relating to condensation and tunneling of particles from one phase…
We show that if actions more general than the usual simple plaquette action ($\sim F_{\mu\nu}^2$) are considered, then compact $U(1)$ {\sl pure} gauge theory in three Euclidean dimensions can have two phases. Both phases are confining…
We describe the effective supergravity theory present below the scale of spontaneous gauge symmetry breaking due to an anomalous U(1), obtained by integrating out tree-level interactions of massive modes. A simple case is examined in some…
Vortices in superfluid 3He-B have been observed to undergo a core transition. We discuss the analog phenomenon in relativistic field theories which admit embedded global domain walls, vortices and monopoles with a core phase structure. They…
We explore the old idea that, in a theory containing several gauge groups, the topological defects of one gauge group coincide with those of another gauge group. This simple 'unification' constraint has deep consequences, the best known of…
The moduli space of centred Bogomolny-Prasad-Sommmerfield 2-monopole fields is a 4-dimensional manifold M with a natural metric, and the geodesics on M correspond to slow-motion monopole dynamics. The best-known case is that of monopoles on…