1998/07/30 by Antti J. Niemi, K. Palo, Niemi, Antti J. +4
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #astro-ph #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.hep-th/9807228
major revisions, 4 pages and 1 figure
arxiv created 1999/11/29 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
In gauge theories with an extended Higgs sector the classical equations of motion can have solutions that describe stable, closed finite energy vortices. Such vortices separate two disjoint Higgs vacua, with one of the vacua embedded in the other in a manner that forms a topologically nontrivial knot. The knottedness stabilizes the vortex against shrinkage in 3+1 dimensional space-time. But in a world with extra large dimensions we expect the configuration to decay by unknotting. As an example we consider the semilocal θW → \fracπ2 limit of the Weinberg-Salam model. We present numerical evidence for the existence of a stable closed vortex, twisted into a toroidal configuration around a circular Higgs vacuum at its core.