Electroweak strings, sphalerons and magnetic fields

May 17, 1994
17 pages
Contribution to:
e-Print:
Report number:
  • TUTP-94-11

Citations per year

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Abstract:
We describe electroweak strings and their ability to carry Chern-Simons number. Certain string configurations, for any θW\theta_W, carry Chern-Simons number equal to that of the sphaleron and we conjecture that such strings are ``extended sphalerons''. The production of electroweak strings during the phase transition is discussed and it is suggested that electroweak strings could survive long enough for them to play a role in baryogenesis. Finally the issue of magnetic field generation during the electroweak phase transition is addressed and several points not discussed in the existing literature are clarified. A connection is made between electroweak strings and magnetic fields produced at the phase transition. (Based on the talk presented at the NATO workshop on ``Electroweak Physics and the Early Universe'', in Sintra, March 1994)
  • talk
  • Salam-Weinberg model
  • field equations: sphaleron
  • string model
  • Chern-Simons term
  • finite temperature
  • magnetic field
  • critical phenomena