Gravitating (bi-)sphalerons
arXiv:hep-th/0001100 · doi:10.1016/S0217-7323(00)00089-X
Abstract
The standard model of electroweak interactions is minimally coupled to gravity and the response of the spherically symmetric solutions -the sphaleron and the bisphaleron- to gravity is emphasized. For a given value of the Higgs mass , several branches of solutions exist which terminate into cusp-catastrophy at some (-depending) critical value of the parameter defined by the ratio of the vector-boson mass to the Planck mass. A given branch either bifurcates from another one at an intermediate value of or persists in the limit where it terminates into a flat sphaleron or bisphaleron or into a Bartnik-McKinnon solution. These bifurcation patterns are studied in some details.
RevTeX, 7 pages, 6 figures