Related papers: Semilocal and Electroweak Strings
We review recent simulations of the formation of a particular class of non-topological defects known as semilocal strings during a phase transition. Semilocal strings have properties that are intermediate between topological cosmic strings…
Semilocal strings -- a particular limit of electroweak strings -- are an interesting example of a stable non-topological defect whose properties resemble those of their topological cousins, the Abrikosov-Nielsen-Olesen vortices. There is,…
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…
We show that the minimal supergravity extension of the standard model automatically contains topologically stable electroweak strings if the hidden sector is invariant under the exact R-symmetry. These defects appear in the form of the…
I analyze the interplay of gauge and global symmetries in the theory of topological defects. In a two-dimensional model in which both gauge symmetries and {\it exact} global symmetries are spontaneously broken, stable vortices may fail to…
Electroweak baryogenesis has become a topic of much recent activity [1]. Here we discuss a new scenario which has the advantage of being insensitive to the order of the electroweak phase transition. We briefly review a mechanism [2] using…
We study the scenario of electroweak baryogenesis mediated by nonsuperconducting cosmic strings. This idea relies upon electroweak symmetry being restored in a region around the core of the topological defect so that, within this region,…
In this paper we describe a new type of topological defect, called a homilia string, which is stabilized via interactions with the string network. Using analytical and numerical techniques, we investigate the stability and dynamics of…
We discuss the stability of an electroweak string with axions in its core, which give to the configuration a quasi-topological property, and compare it with other modifications using instantons in the thin wall approximation.
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…
We give a prescription for embedding classical solutions and, in particular, topological defects in field theories which are invariant under symmetry groups that are not necessarily simple. After providing examples of embedded defects in…
I describe the string solutions in the standard electroweak model and argue that they may be stabilized by quark, lepton or other bound states. I then reinterpret the sphaleron in terms of electroweak strings and show that it can be viewed…
We investigate the instabilities of low winding number electroweak strings using standard numerical techniques of linear algebra. For strings of unit winding we are able to confirm and extend existing calculations of the unstable region in…
We demonstrate that field theories involving explicit breaking of continous symmetries, incorporate two generic classes of topological defects each of which is stable for a particular range of parameters. The first class includes defects of…
A solution of the standard electroweak theory with a single lepton family is constructed, consisting of a cosmic string and a fermion condensate within its core. The stability of this system to small perturbations is examined, and it is…
Over the past three decades, considerable effort has been devoted to studying the rich and diverse phenomenologies of heterotic strings exhibiting spacetime supersymmetry. Unfortunately, during this same period, there has been relatively…
The stability of "visible" electroweak-type cosmic strings is investigated in an extension of the Standard Model (SM) by a minimal dark sector, consisting of a U(1) gauge field, broken spontaneously by a scalar. The "visible" and dark…
We investigate the stability of the electroweak Z-string at high temperatures. Our results show that while finite temperature corrections can improve the stability of the Z-string, their effect is not strong enough to stabilize the Z-string…
We propose a criterion to classify hybrid defects occurring in field theoretic models such as the standard electroweak model. This criterion leads us to consider the minimal extension of the electroweak model in which electroweak magnetic…
We study the stability properties of the twisted vortex solutions in the semilocal Abelian Higgs model with a global $\mathbf{SU}(2)$ invariance. This model can be viewed as the Weinberg-Salam theory in the limit where the non-Abelian gauge…