Abstract
We investigate tunneling decay of false vortices in the presence of gravity, in which vortices are trapped in the false vacuum of a theory of scalar electrodynamics in three dimensions. The core of the vortex contains magnetic flux in the true vacuum, while outside the vortex is the appropriate topologically nontrivial false vacuum. We numerically obtain vortex solutions which are classically stable; however, they could decay via tunneling. To show this phenomenon, we construct the proper junction conditions in curved spacetime. We find that the tunneling exponent for the vortices is half that for Coleman-de Luccia bubbles and discuss possible future applications.
Highlights
We investigate tunneling decay of false vortices in the presence of gravity, in which vortices are trapped in the false vacuum of a theory of scalar electrodynamics in three dimensions
The energy of the vortex solution consists of three parts as follows: The contribution from the magnetic flux stabilizes the configuration against collapse, while the contribution from the potential stabilizes the configuration against expansion
In earlier work [7], we studied the decay of vortices trapped in the symmetry-breaking false vacuum, in which the scalar field interpolates between a true vacuum state at the origin and a false vacuum state at spatial infinity
Summary
We investigate tunneling decay of false vortices in the presence of gravity, in which vortices are trapped in the false vacuum of a theory of scalar electrodynamics in three dimensions. Gauged vortices are topological soliton solutions in the theory of a complex scalar field φ with U(1) symmetry in three spacetime dimensions. The profile of the scalar field can sometimes be flat inside and outside a thin transition region between these two values; we call such configurations thin-wall vortices.
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