'T Hooft-Polyakov Monopoles and Dirac Strings in the 3D Georgi-Glashow Model: A Lattice Investigation

摘要

After having roughly scanned the phase structure of the 3D Georgi-Glashow model on an 8/sup 3/ lattice, with periodic boundary conditions, we investigate its quantized vacuum with respect to monopole-antimonopole manti m excitations near the Higgs phase transition (PT). Starting from Monte Carlo generated equilibrium configurations, a Langevin type relaxation procedure is applied in order to freeze out the quantum fluctuations. As expected, from continuum considerations, we find quasi stable plateaus in the action corresponding to manti m pairs of the non-Abelian 't Hooft-Polyakov type. Our data show that the density of these pairs drops very sharply at the PT, thus supporting the dilute gas picture. In addition we observe stable Abelian Dirac strings, which arise from manti m pairs annihilating through the boundaries. (ERA citation 13:025381)