Charge Violation and Alice Behavior in Global and Textured Strings

TL;DR

This paper investigates global Alice strings, showing how they cause charge violation and affect particle behavior through multivalued symmetries and Wilson lines, with implications for observable effects.

Contribution

It demonstrates the behavior of both divergent and textured global Alice strings and their impact on charge violation and particle scattering.

Findings

Charged particles are scattered via effective Wilson lines.

Textured Alice strings produce path-dependent charge violation.

Measurable effects arise from multivalued Wilson lines inside strings.

Abstract

Spontaneous breaking of global symmetries can produce ``Alice'' strings: line defects which make unbroken symmetries multivalued, induce apparent charge violation via Aharonov-Bohm interactions, and form point defects when twisted into loops. We demonstrate this behavior for both divergent and textured global Alice strings. Both adiabatically scatter charged particles via effective Wilson lines. For textured Alice strings, such Wilson lines occur at all radii, and are multivalued only inside the string. This produces measurable effects, including path-dependent charge violation.