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arXiv · hep-ph/9206229

Semilocal Topological Defects

Mark Hindmarsh
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Abstract

Semilocal defects are those formed in field theories with spontaneously broken symmetries, where the vacuum manifold $M$ is fibred by the action of the gauge group in a non-trivial way. Studied in this paper is the simplest such class of theories, in which $M\simeq S^{2N-1}$, fibred by the action of a local $U(1)$ symmetry. Despite $M$ having trivial homotopy groups up to $π_{2N-2}$, this theory exhibits a fascinating variety of defects: vortices, or semilocal strings; monopoles (on which the strings terminate); and (when $N=2$) textures, which may be stabilised by their associated magnetic field to produce a skyrmion.

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Mark Hindmarsh. 1992-06-17. Semilocal Topological Defects. https://doi.org/10.1016/0550-3213(93)90681-e

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