Monopoles, vortices and their correlations in SU(3) gauge group

TL;DR

This paper investigates topological defects like monopoles and vortices in SU(3) gauge theory by analyzing its SU(2) subgroups, revealing their interactions and relations through gauge transformations and comparisons with existing methods.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using successive gauge transformations on SU(2) subgroups to identify and analyze SU(3) topological defects and compares these findings with the Cho decomposition method.

Findings

Identified chains of monopoles and vortices in SU(3) via subgroup analysis.

Established relations between subgroup defects and SU(3) defects.

Compared defect structures with the Cho decomposition results.

Abstract

Topological defects such as monopoles, vortices and "chains"of the SU(3) gauge group are studied using its SU(2) subgroups. Two appropriate successive gauge transformations are applied to the subgroups to identify the chains of monopoles and vortices. Using the fact that the defects of the subgroups are not independent, the SU(3) defects and the Lagrangian are obtained and compared with the ones provided by Cho decomposition method. By comparing the results with the ones which have been obtained directly for the SU(3) gauge group, the relation and possible interactions between the defects of the subgroups are discussed.