What does a strongly excited 't Hooft-Polyakov magnetic monopole do?

TL;DR

This paper uses numerical simulations to study the evolution of strongly excited magnetic monopoles, revealing the formation of a quasi-stable breathing state and high-frequency oscillations in the far region.

Contribution

It introduces a novel numerical approach to analyze the dynamics of excited monopoles and uncovers new long-lasting oscillatory states.

Findings

Monopoles do not radiate all energy of excitation.

A quasi-stable breathing state forms centrally.

High-frequency oscillations develop in the far region.

Abstract

The time evolution of strongly exited SU(2) Bogomolny-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) magnetic monopoles in Minkowski spacetime is investigated by means of numerical simulations based on the technique of conformal compactification and on the use of hyperboloidal initial value problem. It is found that an initially static monopole does not radiate the entire energy of the exciting pulse toward future null infinity. Rather, a long-lasting quasi-stable `breathing state' develops in the central region and certain expanding shell structures -- built up by very high frequency oscillations -- are formed in the far away region.