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F. Zimmerschied

Publications and source records attributed to F. Zimmerschied.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

A simplified model for monopole catalysis of nucleon decay

We present a simple model where a nucleon is treated as the Skyrmion, both monopole and Skyrmion are smooth solutions of the classical field equations,the baryon number non-conservation is explicitly built in and is due to the classical analogue of the triangle anomaly, and there is no necessity to consider leptons. We show by numerical analysis that there are no static classical solutions with non-zero baryon number on top of the monopole, i.e., that the monopole catalysis of Skyrmion decay indeed proceeds classically.

hep-ph

't Hooft tensors as Kalb-Ramond fields of generalised monopoles in all odd dimensions: d=3 and d=5

The Kalb-Ramond monopole, as discussed by Nepomechie, is identical with the (singular) Dirac monopole in d=3 dimensions. The latter can be described by the (regular) 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole, via the 't Hooft tensor construction. This construction is extended to arbitrary odd dimensions by performing the d=5 case explicitly, exploiting the (regular) `monopoles' of generalised Georgi-Glashow models and identifying their 't Hooft tensors as the Kalb-Ramond fields. The relevant `magnetic charges' are expressed as topological invariants.

hep-th

Sphaleron of a 4 dimensional SO(4) Higgs model

We construct the finite energy path between topologically distinct vacua of a 4 dimensional SO(4) Higgs model which is known to support an instanton, and show that there is a sphaleron with Chern-Simons number N_CS=1/2 at the top of the energy barrier. This is carried out using the original geometric loop construction of Manton.

hep-th

Monopole-Skyrmions

A systematic numerical study of the classical solutions to the combined system consisting of the Georgi-Glashow model and the SO(3) gauged Skyrme model is presented. The gauging of the Skyrme system permits a lower bound on the energy, so that the solutions of the composite system can be topologically stable. The solutions feature some very interesting bifurcation patterns, and it is found that some branches of these solutions are unstable.

hep-th

d dimensional SO(d)-Higgs Models with Instanton and Sphaleron: d=2,3

The Abelian Higgs model and the Georgi-Glashow model in 2 and 3 Euclidean dimensions respectively, support both finite size instantons and sphalerons. The instantons are the familiar Nielsen-Oleson vortices and the 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole solutions respectively. We have constructed the sphaleron solutions and calculated the Chern-Simons charges N_cs for sphalerons of both models and have constructed two types of noncontractible loops between topologically distinct vacuua. In the 3 dimensional model, the sphaleron and the vacuua have zero magnetic and electric flux while the configurations on the loops have non vanishing magnetic flux.

hep-th

Dilute Instanton Gas of an O(3) Skyrme Model

The pure-Skyrme limit of a scale-breaking Skyrmed O(3) sigma model in 1+1 dimensions is employed to study the effect of the Skyrme term on the semiclassical analysis of a field theory with instantons. The instantons of this model are self-dual and can be evaluated explicitly. They are also localised to an absolute scale, and their fluctuation action can be reduced to a scalar subsystem. This permits the explicit calculation of the fluctuation determinant and the shift in vacuum energy due to instantons. The model also illustrates the semiclassical quantisation of a Skyrmed field theory.

hep-th

Quantum Tunneling and Phase Transitions in Spin Systems with an Applied Magnetic Field

Transitions from classical to quantum behaviour in a spin system with two degenerate ground states separated by twin energy barriers which are asymmetric due to an applied magnetic field are investigated. It is shown that these transitions can be interpreted as first- or second-order phase transitions depending on the anisotropy and magnetic parameters defining the system in an effective Lagrangian description.

cond-mat

Periodic Instantons and Quantum-Classical Transitions in Spin Systems

Some models allowing explicit calculation of periodic instantons and evaluation of their action are studied with regard to transitions from classical to quantum behaviour as the temperature is lowered and tunneling sets in. It is shown that (beyond a critical value of a coupling) the spin system considered acquires a first order transition as a result of the field dependence of its effective mass, whereas models with constant mass exhibit only second order transitions.

cond-mat

Calculation of Spin Tunneling Effects in the Presence of an Applied Magnetic Field

The tunneling splitting of the energy levels of a ferromagnetic particle in the presence of an applied magnetic field - previously derived only for the ground state with the path integral method - is obtained in a simple way from Schroedinger theory. The origin of the factors entering the result is clearly understood, in particular the effect of the asymmetry of the barriers of the potential. The method should appeal particularly to experimentalists searching for evidence of macroscopic spin tunneling.

cond-mat

Enhancement of Quantum Tunneling for Excited States in Ferromagnetic Particles

A formula suitable for a quantitative evaluation of the tunneling effect in a ferromagnetic particle is derived with the help of the instanton method. The tunneling between n-th degenerate states of neighboring wells is dominated by a periodic pseudoparticle configuration. The low-lying level-splitting previously obtained with the LSZ method in field theory in which the tunneling is viewed as the transition of n bosons induced by the usual (vacuum) instanton is recovered. The observation made with our new result is that the tunneling effect increases at excited states. The results should be useful in analyzing results of experimental tests of macroscopic quantum coherence in ferromagnetic particles.

cond-mat

Skyrme Sphalerons of an O(3)-sigma Model and the Calculation of Transition Rates at Finite Temperature

The reduced O(3)-sigma model with an O(3)->O(2) symmetry breaking potential is considered with an additional Skyrmionic term, i.e. a totally antisymmetric quartic term in the field derivatives. This Skyrme term does not affect the classical static equations of motionwhich, however, allow an unstable sphaleron solution. Quantum fluctuations around the static classical solution are considered for the determination of the rate of thermally induced transitions between topologically distinct vacua mediated by the sphaleron. The main technical effect of the Skyrme term is to produce an extra measure factor in one of the fluctuation path integrals which is therefore evaluated using a measure-modified Fourier-Matsubara decomposition (this being one of the few cases permitting this explicit calculation). The resulting transition rate is valid in a temperature region different from that of the original Skyrme-less model, and the crossover from transitions dominated by thermal fluctuations to those dominated by tunneling at the lower limit of this range depends on the strength of the Skyrme coupling.

hep-th

Quantum Tunneling of Spin Particles in Periodic Potentials with Asymmetric Twin Barriers

The tunneling effect of a periodic potential with an asymmetric twin barrier per period is calculated using the instanton method. The model is derived from the Hamiltonian of a small ferromagnetic particle in an external magnetic field using the spin-coherent-state path integral. The instantons in two neighbouring barriers differ and lead to different level shifts $\triangleε_1, \triangleε_2$. We derive with Bloch theory the energy spectrum which has formally the structure of an energy band. The spectrum depends on both level shifts. The removal of Kramer's degeneracy by an external magnetic field is discussed. In addition we find a new kind of quenching of macroscopic quantum coherence which is irrelevant to Kramer's degeneracy.

hep-th

M-branes, anti-M-branes and nonextremal black holes

An M-brane and anti-M-brane scheme is proposed to study nonextremal 4D and 5D black holes. The improved nonextremal intersecting M-brane solutions proposed here, involve two sets of harmonic functions. The constraints among the pressures are found, and new features in the M-brane and anti-M-brane picture are demonstrated, which resolve the discrepancy in the number of free parameters in the D-brane picture. In terms of the ``numbers'' of M-branes and anti-M-branes, the prefactors of the entropies are found to be model independent, and the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy assumes the duality invariant form which is consistent with the microscopic explanation of the black hole entropy.

hep-th

Batalin-Vilkovisky field-antifield quantisation of fluctuations around classical field configurations

The Lagrangian field-antifield formalism of Batalin and Vilkovisky (BV) is used to investigate the application of the collective coordinate method to soliton quantisation. It is shown how Noether identities and local symmetries of the Lagrangian arise when collective coordinates are introduced in order to avoid divergences related to zero modes. This transformation to collective and fluctuation degrees of freedom is interpreted as a canonical transformation in the symplectic field-antifield space which induces a time-local gauge symmetry. Separating the corresponding Lagrangian path integral of the BV scheme in lowest order into harmonic quantum fluctuations and a free motion of the collective coordinate with the classical mass of the soliton, we show how the BV approach clarifies the relation between zero modes, collective coordinates, gauge invariance and the center-of-mass motion of classical solutions in quantum fields. Finally, we apply the procedure to the reduced nonlinear O(3) sigma-model.

hep-th

A new look at the RST model

The RST model is augmented by the addition of a scalar field and a boundary term so that it is well-posed and local. Expressing the RST action in terms of the ADM formulation, the constraint structure can be analysed completely. It is shown that from the view point of local field theories, there exists a hidden dynamical field in the RST model. Thanks to the presence of this hidden dynamical field, we can reconstruct the closed algebra of the constraints which guarantee the general invariance of the RST action. The resulting stress tensors are recovered to be true tensor quantities. At the quantum level, the cancellation condition for the total central charge is reexamined. Finally, with the help of the hidden dynamical field, the fact that the semi-classical static solution of the RST model has two independent parameters (P,M), whereas for the classical CGHS model there is only one, can be explained.

hep-th

Significance of zero modes in path--integral quantization of solitonic theories with BRST invariance

The significance of zero modes in the path-integral quantization of some solitonic models is investigated. In particular a Skyrme-like theory with topological vortices in (1+2) dimensions is studied, and with a BRST invariant gauge fixing a well defined transition amplitude is obtained in the one loop approximation. We also present an alternative method which does not necessitate evoking the time-dependence in the functional integral, but is equivalent to the original one in dealing with the quantization in the background of the static classical solution of the non-linear field equations. The considerations given here are particularly useful in - but also limited to - the one-loop approximation.

hep-th

BRST invariant approach to quantum mechanical tunneling

A new approach with BRST invariance is suggested to cure the degeneracy problem of ill defined path integrals in the path-integral calculationof quantum mechanical tunneling effects in which the problem arises due to the occurrence of zero modes. The Faddeev-Popov procedure is avoided and the integral over the zero mode is transformed in a systematic way into a well defined integral over instanton positions. No special procedure has to be adopted as in the Faddeev-Popov method in calculating the Jacobian of the transformation. The quantum mechanical tunneling for the Sine-Gordon potential is used as a test of the method and the width of the lowest energy band is obtained in exact agreement with that of WKB calculations.

hep-th