Stable charged cosmic strings
Date
2011
Authors
Weigel H.
Quandt M.
Graham N.
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Abstract
We study the quantum stabilization of a cosmic string by a heavy fermion doublet in a reduced version of the standard model. We show that charged strings, obtained by populating fermionic bound state levels, become stable if the electroweak bosons are coupled to a fermion that is less than twice as heavy as the top quark. This result suggests that extraordinarily large fermion masses or unrealistic couplings are not required to bind a cosmic string in the standard model. Numerically we find the most favorable string profile to be a simple trough in the Higgs vacuum expectation value of radius 10-18m. The vacuum remains stable in our model, because neutral strings are not energetically favored. © 2011 American Physical Society.
Description
Keywords
Bound state, Cosmic strings, Electroweak bosons, Expectation values, Fermion mass, Heavy fermion, The standard model, Vacuum, Cosmology
Citation
Physical Review Letters
106
10
106
10