Localization of Gauge Fields and Monopole Tunnelling

Abstract

We study the dynamical localization of a massless gauge field on a lower-dimensional surface (2-brane). In flat space, the necessary and sufficient condition for this phenomenon is the existence of confinement in the bulk. The resulting configuration is equivalent to a dual Josephson junction. This duality leads to an interesting puzzle, as it implies that a localized massless theory, even in the Abelian case, must become confining at exponentially large distances. Through the use of topological arguments we clarify the physics behind this large-distance confinement and identify the instantons of the brane world-volume theory that are responsible for its appearance. We show that they correspond to the (condensed) bulk magnetic charges (monopoles), that occasionally tunnel through the brane and induce weak confinement of the brane theory. We consider the possible generalization of this effect to higher dimensions and discuss phenomenological bounds on the confinement of electric charges at exponentially large distances within our Universe.

11 pages, 3 figures, improvements in the presentation, version to appear in Physical Review D

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• The Cosmological Parameters 2006
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• Domain Walls in Strongly Coupled Theories
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Cited by in corpus (12)

• Josephson instantons and Josephson monopoles in a non-Abelian Josephson junction
• Monopoles in the presence of the Chern-Simons term via the Julia-Toulouse approach
• Micro Black Holes and the Democratic Transition
• Confinement and Localization on Domain Walls
• Stückelberg Formulation of Holography
• Dynamics of Charged Events
• Coherent States in Gauge Theories: Topological Defects and Other Classical Configurations
• More about the Instanton/Soliton/Kink correspondence
• Localization of gauge fields and Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory
• The Chern-Simons term in a dual Josephson junction
• Weak Gravity Conjecture as a Razor Criterium for Exotic D-brane instantons
• Chaotic instantons in scalar field theory