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arXiv · 2106.11870

Winding number dependence of quantum vortex energies at one-loop

N. Graham·H. Weigel
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Abstract

We compute the one-loop vacuum polarization energies of Abrikosov-Nielsen-Olesen (ANO) vortices with topological charge $n$ in scalar electrodynamics, for the BPS case of equal gauge and scalar masses. This calculation allows us to investigate the relationship between the winding number and the quantum-corrected vortex energy, which in turn determines the stability of higher winding configurations against decay into configurations with unit winding. While the classical energy is proportional to $n$, we find that the vacuum polarization energy is negative and approximately proportional to $n-1$ with a small constant offset.

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N. Graham, H. Weigel. 2021-06-22. Winding number dependence of quantum vortex energies at one-loop. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.104.l011901

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