Quantum tunneling of superconducting string currents
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
2009-11-07 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Abstract
We investigate the decay of current on a superconducting cosmic string through quantum tunneling. We construct the instanton describing tunneling in a simple bosonic string model, and estimate the decay rate. The tunneling rate vanishes in the limit of a chiral current. This conclusion, which is supported by a symmetry argument, is expected to apply in general. It has important implications for the stability of chiral vortons.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.hep-ph/0202116,
title = {Quantum tunneling of superconducting string currents},
author = {Jose J. Blanco-Pillado and Ken D. Olum and Alexander Vilenkin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-ph/0202116},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
16 pages, 2 figures