Fermion Energies in the Background of a Cosmic String

Abstract

We provide a thorough exposition, including technical and numerical details, of previously published results on the quantum stabilization of cosmic strings. Stabilization occurs through the coupling to a heavy fermion doublet in a reduced version of the standard model. We combine the vacuum polarization energy of fermion zero-point fluctuations and the binding energy of occupied energy levels, which are of the same order in a semi-classical expansion. Populating these bound states assigns a charge to the string. We show that strings carrying fermion charge become stable if the electro-weak bosons are coupled to a fermion that is less than twice as heavy as the top quark. The vacuum remains stable in our model, because neutral strings are not energetically favored. These findings suggests that extraordinarily large fermion masses or unrealistic couplings are not required to bind a cosmic string in the standard model.

arXiv comment38 pages, 6 figures, version accepted for publication in Phys Rev D

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Cited by in corpus (14)

• Non-Abelian strings and domain walls in two Higgs doublet models
• Quantum Corrections to Soliton Energies
• Topological Defects in the Georgi-Machacek Model
• Stabilisation of semilocal strings by dark scalar condensates
• Brane Realization of Nambu Monopoles and Electroweak Strings
• Isospin Invariance and the Vacuum Polarization Energy of Cosmic Strings
• Quantum Stabilization of a Closed Nielsen-Olesen String
• Quantum Stabilization of Cosmic Strings
• Quantum energies of BPS vortices in $D=2+1$ and $D=3+1$
• Vacuum polarization energy of a complex scalar field in a vortex background
• Electroweak strings with dark scalar condensates and their (in)stability
• Quantum stabilization of a hedgehog type of cosmic string
• Cosmic Strings Stabilized by Fermion Fluctuations
• On the Casimir Energy of Frequency Dependent Interactions