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The Fate of Magnetic Monopoles in the Early Universe

Maximilian Bachmaier

Max Planck Institute for Physics

Abstrakt: The standard model of particle physics is a good approximation for lower energy scales. In the early hot universe, however, it is assumed that there was a so-called grand unified theory, which unifies the three fundamental forces of particle physics: the electromagnetic, the weak, and the strong force. However, all attempts to unify these three forces lead to a possible overabundance of 't Hooft-Polyakov magnetic monopoles.

But why magnetic monopoles haven't been observed so far? In my presentation, I will discuss the so-called magnetic monopole problem and present two solutions for this in more detail. First, I will present our numerical study on monopole interactions with domain walls. We observe that the collision leads to the erasure of the magnetic monopoles and thus may solve the monopole problem (Dvali, Liu, and Vachaspati 1997).

Second, I will present monopoles connected by cosmic strings (Langacker, Pi 1980). The strings pull the monopoles together until they collide and annihilate. Here, I will particularly focus on the “slingshot effect” that describes monopoles traversing the boundary between Coulomb and confining phases. This passage causes the gauge field to be confined in a cosmic string connected to the domain wall separating the two phases.

These two phenomena, relevant in the early universe, could leave observable imprints such as gravitational radiation.

Seminář se koná v úterý 19. srpna ve 14:00
v zasedací místnosti ÚTEF ČVUT, Praha 1, Husova 240/5.

Ing. Bartoloměj Biskup, Ph.D.
tajemník semináře
doc. Ing. Ivan Štekl, CSc.
ředitel ÚTEF
doc. Dr. André Sopczak
předseda NPS, ČS IEEE

IEEE logoNUCLEAR & PLASMA SCIENCES SOCIETY CHAPTER
IEEE Czechoslovakia section
https://www.ieee.cz/main/section/nps/

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