2 research outputs found
Center Vortices, Nexuses, and the Georgi-Glashow Model
In a gauge theory with no Higgs fields the mechanism for confinement is by
center vortices, but in theories with adjoint Higgs fields and generic symmetry
breaking, such as the Georgi-Glashow model, Polyakov showed that in d=3
confinement arises via a condensate of 't Hooft-Polyakov monopoles. We study
the connection in d=3 between pure-gauge theory and the theory with adjoint
Higgs by varying the Higgs VEV v. As one lowers v from the Polyakov semi-
classical regime v>>g (g is the gauge coupling) toward zero, where the unbroken
theory lies, one encounters effects associated with the unbroken theory at a
finite value v\sim g, where dynamical mass generation of a gauge-symmetric
gauge- boson mass m\sim g^2 takes place, in addition to the Higgs-generated
non-symmetric mass M\sim vg. This dynamical mass generation is forced by the
infrared instability (in both 3 and 4 dimensions) of the pure-gauge theory. We
construct solitonic configurations of the theory with both m,M non-zero which
are generically closed loops consisting of nexuses (a class of soliton recently
studied for the pure-gauge theory), each paired with an antinexus, sitting like
beads on a string of center vortices with vortex fields always pointing into
(out of) a nexus (antinexus); the vortex magnetic fields extend a transverse
distance 1/m. An isolated nexus with vortices is continuously deformable from
the 't Hooft-Polyakov (m=0) monopole to the pure-gauge nexus-vortex complex
(M=0). In the pure-gauge M=0 limit the homotopy (or its
analog for SU(N)) of the 't Hooft monopoles is no longer applicable, and is
replaced by the center-vortex homotopy .Comment: 27 pages, LaTeX, 3 .eps figure