Compact Q=2 Abelian Higgs model in the London limit: Vortex-monopole chains and the photon propagator (original) (raw)

Monopole chains in the compact Abelian Higgs model with doubly-charged matter field

Physics Letters B, 2005

We study the properties of topological defects in the lattice compact Abelian Higgs Model with charge Q = 2 matter field. We find that monopoles and antimonopoles form chain-like structures which are dense in the confinement/symmetric phase. In this phase the mentioned structures explain both the confinement of single-charged and the breaking of strings spanned between doubly-charged test particles. This observation helps to understand how the non-diagonal gluons, once taken into consideration in the Abelian projection of gluodynamics, could reproduce in this framework the string breaking for adjoint charges.

What Becomes of Giant Vortices in the Abelian Higgs Model

Physical Review Letters

We discuss vortex solutions of the Abelian Higgs model in the limit of large winding number n. We suggest a framework where a topological quantum number n is associated with a ratio of dynamical scales and a systematic expansion in inverse powers of n is then derived in the spirit of effective field theory. The general asymptotic form of giant vortices is obtained. For critical coupling the axially symmetric vortices become integrable in the large-n limit and we present the corresponding analytic solution. The method provides simple asymptotic formulas for the vortex shape and parameters with accuracy that can be systematically improved, and can be applied to topological solitons of other models. After including the next-to-leading terms the approximation works remarkably well down to n ¼ 1.

(Meta)stable closed vortices in 3+1 dimensional gauge theories with an extended Higgs sector

Physical Review D, 2000

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.

String breaking and monopoles: a case study in the 3D Abelian Higgs model

Physics Letters B, 2002

We study the breaking of the string spanned between test charges in the three dimensional Abelian Higgs model with compact gauge field and fundamentally charged Higgs field at zero temperature. In agreement with current expectations we demonstrate that string breaking is associated with pairing of monopoles. However, the string breaking is not accompanied by an ordinary phase transition.

Monopoles and vortices in pure gauge theories and in Higgs theories

2001

Smeared Abelian and center gauges are introduced in pure non-Abelian lattice gauge theories. Popular Abelian and center gauges are limits of smeared gauges. Smeared gauges are also shown to be equivalent to Higgs theories. As a result, distributions and interactions of monopoles and vortices, which are objects responsible for confinement in pure gauge theories, can be studied by investigating classical solutions of Higgs theories.

Quantum theory of strings in an Abelian Higgs model

Physical Review D, 1996

Starting from the Abelian Higgs field theory, we construct the theory of quantum Abrikosov-Nielsen-Olesen strings. It is shown that in four space -time dimensions in the limit of infinitely thin strings, the conformal anomaly is absent, and the quantum theory exists. We also study an analogue of the Aharonov-Bohm effect: the corresponding topological interaction is proportional to the linking number of the string world sheet and the particle world trajectory. The creation operators of the strings are explicitly constructed in the path integral and in the Hamiltonian formulation of the theory. We show that the Aharonov-Bohm effect gives rise to several nontrivial commutation relations.

The phase structure of the non-compact abelian Higgs model

Nuclear Physics B, 1988

We study the non-compact abelian Higgs model on the lattice in a version with fixed-length Higgs and a Villain form of the gauge-Higgs coupling. This version permits a simplified proof of the earlier results that the model is in its Coulomb phase at sufficiently strong gauge coupling or at sufficiently small values for the Higgs length. Also, it enables us to establish the Coulomb phase simultaneously in these two regions. Similar methods demonstrate the occurrence of a phase transition to a new phase -shown previously to be the Higgs phase -valid at large Higgs length when the gauge coupling is not too strong. We use the correlation length of the Higgs field as an order parameter, and also study the behavior of the gauge propagator.

Spin vortices in the Abelian-Higgs model with cholesteric vacuum structure

We continue the study of U (1) vortices with cholesteric vacuum structure. A new class of solutions is found which represent global vortices of the internal spin field. These spin vortices are characterized by a non-vanishing angular dependence at spatial infinity, or winding. We show that despite the topological Z 2 behavior of SO(3) windings, the topological charge of the spin vortices is of the Z type in the cholesteric. We find these solutions numerically and discuss the properties derived from their low energy effective field theory in 1 + 1 dimensions.

More on string breaking in the 3D Abelian Higgs model: the photon propagator

Physics Letters B, 2003

We study the Landau gauge photon propagator in the three-dimensional Abelian Higgs model with compact gauge field and fundamentally charged matter in the London limit. The total gauge field is split into singular and regular parts. On the confinement side of the string breaking crossover the momentum dependence of the total propagator is characterized by an anomalous dimension similarly to 3D compact QED. At the crossover and throughout the Higgs region the anomalous dimension disappears. This result perfectly agrees with recent observations that the monopole-antimonopole plasma leads to nonzero anomalous dimension and the presence of the matter fields causes monopole pairing into dipole bound states. The Yukawa mass characterizing the propagator part from regular gauge fields is non-vanishing at the Higgs side and coincides with the mass found for the total propagator. The regular gauge field without anomalous dimension becomes massless at the crossover and in the confinement region.

Strings and Aharonov–Bohm effect in Abelian Higgs model

Physics Letters B, 1998

We investigate numerically the properties of the Abrikosov -Nielsen-Olesen strings in 4D abelian Higgs model. The fractal dimension D f of the vortex strings was found to be large in the Coulomb phase and it is close to 2 in the Higgs phase. We also show that the Wilson loop for non-integer charges is correlated with the linking number of the vortex string world sheets and the test particle world trajectory. We find that this topological (Aharonov-Bohm) interaction gives the main contribution to the Wilson loop quantum average for non-integer test charges in the vicinity of the Coulomb-Higgs phase transition.