Electroweak Knot

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the existence of stable electroweak knot solitons in the standard model, characterized by a topological quantum number linked to the Chern-Simons index, with potential implications for particle physics.

Contribution

It introduces stable electroweak knots with a fixed topological quantum number, constructed from helical Z boson flux tubes and Higgs field dressing, a novel topological soliton in the standard model.

Findings

Existence of stable electroweak knots confirmed.

Estimated mass of the lightest knot is around 21 TeV.

Topological quantum number linked to Chern-Simons index.

Abstract

We demonstrate the existence of stable knot solitons in the standard electroweak theory whose topological quantum number $\pi_3(S^2)$ is fixed by the Chern-Simon index of the $Z$ boson. The electroweak knots are made of the helical magnetic flux tube of $Z$ boson which has a non-trivial dressing of the Higgs field, which could also be viewed as two quantized flux rings linked together whose linking number becomes the knot quantum number. We estimate the mass of the lightest knot to be around $21 TeV$.