Quantum Effects on Higgs Winding Configurations
Abstract
Description
We examine the quantum corrections to the static energy for Higgs winding configurations. We evaluate the effective action for such configurations in Weinberg-Salam theory without U(1)-gauge fields or fermions. For a configuration whose size is much smaller than the inverse W-mass, quantum contributions to the energy are comparable to the classical energy. Moreover, it is insufficient to consider only one-loop corrections, even as hbar --> 0. Indeed, all loop orders contribute equally to the static energy. Nevertheless, quantum fluctuations do not stabilize winding configurations.
6 pages REVTEX, no figures. To be published in the proceedings of A CRM-Fields-CAP Summer Workshop in Theoretical Physics: Solitons, Properties, Dynamics, Interactions and Applications, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, 20-26 Jul 1997
6 pages REVTEX, no figures. To be published in the proceedings of A CRM-Fields-CAP Summer Workshop in Theoretical Physics: Solitons, Properties, Dynamics, Interactions and Applications, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, 20-26 Jul 1997