Related papers: STABILITY OF Z-STRINGS IN STRONG MAGNETIC FIELDS
The broken-symmetry electroweak vacuum is destabilized in the presence of a magnetic field stronger than a critical value. Such magnetic field may be generated in the phase transition and restore the symmetry inside the bubbles. A numerical…
Sharp phase transitions described by stiff equations of state allow for the existence of a third family of stable compact stars (besides white dwarfs and neutron stars), twin stars. In this work, we investigate for the first time the role…
We argue that the existence of the electroweak monopole predicts the existence of the electroweak string in the standard model made of monopole-antimonopole pair separated infinitely apart, which carry the quantized magnetic flux $4 \pi…
Metastable cosmic strings provide a minimal and predictive origin for the stochastic gravitational-wave background reported by Pulsar Timing Array experiments. We analyse this possibility in electroweak-like dark sectors with a single-stage…
We examine the Standard Model field configurations near cosmic strings in a particular class of models. This class is defined by the condition that the generator of the flux in the string, $T_s$, commutes with the Standard Model Lie…
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…
The vacuum manifold of the standard electroweak model is a three-sphere when one considers homogeneous Higgs field configurations. For inhomogeneous configurations we argue that the vacuum manifold is the Hopf fibered three sphere and that…
In the presence of arbitrarily large magnetic fields, matter composed of electrons and nuclei was known to be unstable if $\alpha$ or $Z$ is too large. Here we prove that matter {\it is stable\/} if $\alpha<0.06$ and $Z\alpha^2<0.04$.
We provide a thorough exposition of recent results on the quantum stabilization of cosmic strings. Stabilization occurs through the coupling to a heavy fermion doublet in a reduced version of the standard model. The study combines the…
We propose that strong magnetic fields should be generated at shock waves associated with formation of galaxies or clusters of galaxies by the Weibel instability, an instability in collisionless plasmas. The strength of the magnetic fields…
The decay of non-topological electroweak strings formed during the electroweak phase transition in the early universe may leave an observable imprint in the universe today. Such strings can naturally seed primordial magnetic fields.…
We construct groundstates of the string with non-zero mass gap and non-trivial chromo-magnetic fields as well as curvature. The exact spectrum as function of the chromo-magnetic fields and curvature is derived. We examine the behavior of…
Magnetic fields may have been generated in the electroweak phase transition through spontaneous symmetry breaking or through the subsequent dynamical evolution of semiclassical field configurations. Here I demonstrate explicitly how…
We derive electroweak Z-string solutions in the Glashow-Weinberg-Salam model with two Higgs doublets. The existence of such solutions in particular requires a specific relation between the ratio of the two Higgs vacuum expectation values,…
Vortex solutions in the two Higgs doublet electroweak model are constructed, and their stability to small perturbations is studied. The most general perturbation is decomposed into angular momentum modes, the least stable mode is…
We address the question of finding stable and metastable cosmic strings in quasi-realistic heterotic M-theory compactifications with stabilized moduli. According to Polchinski's conjecture, the only stable strings in the absence of massless…
We consider the effect of the presence of a hypermagnetic field at the electroweak phase transition. Screening of the Z-component inside a bubble of the broken phase delays the phase transition and makes it stronger first order. We show…
We study the quantum energy of the Z-string in 2+1 dimensions using the phase shift formalism. Our main interest is the question of stability of a Z-string carrying a finite fermion number.
We show that the sphaleron energy which identifies with the (instanton) potential barrier for B-violation is reduced in the presence (background) of an electroweak Z-string. We also show that for large enough Higgs coupling, $\lambda$, the…
The electroweak vacuum structure in an external magnetic field close to the lower critical value is considered at finite fermion density. It is shown that the leading effect of the fermions is to reduce the symmetry of the W-pair condensate…