Instanton and Monopole in External Chromomagnetic Fields

TL;DR

This paper investigates how external chromomagnetic fields influence instanton and monopole configurations in Yang-Mills theory, revealing deformations, symmetry reductions, and monopole dynamics through numerical minimization and gauge analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a stabilized instanton solution in external fields, analyzing deformations, symmetry breaking, and monopole interactions, which were not previously characterized.

Findings

External magnetic fields cause prolate instanton deformation.

Electric fields induce oblate instanton deformation.

Monopole-antimonopole pairs form around instantons, screening external fields.

Abstract

We study properties of instanton and monopole in an external chromomagnetic field. Generally, the 't Hooft ansatz is no longer a solution of the Yang-Mills field equation in the presence of external fields. Therefore, we investigate a stabilized instanton solution with minimal total Yang-Mills action in a nontrivial topological sector. With this aim, we consider numerical minimization of the action with respect to the global color orientation, the anisotropic scale transformation and the local gauge-like transformation starting from a simple superposed gauge field of the 't Hooft ansatz and the external color field. Here, the external color field is, for simplicity, chosen to be a constant Abelian magnetic field along a certain direction. Then, the 4-dimensional rotational symmetry O(4) of the instanton solution is reduced to two 2-dimensional rotational symmetries $O(2)\times O(2)$ due to the effect of a homogeneous external field. In the space $\mib{R}^{3}$ at fixed $t$, we find a quadrupole deformation of this instanton solution. In the presence of a magnetic field $\vec{H}$, a prolate deformation occurs along the direction of $\vec{H}$. Contrastingly, in the presence of an electric field $\vec{E}$ an oblate deformation occurs along the direction of $\vec{E}$. We further discuss the local correlation between the instanton and the monopole in the external field in the maximally Abelian gauge. The external field affects the appearance of the monopole trajectory around the instanton. In fact, a monopole and anti-monopole pair appears around the instanton center, and this monopole loop seems to partially screen the external field.