Numerical Investigation of Monopole Chains

TL;DR

This paper numerically investigates chains of SU(2) BPS monopoles, revealing asymmetric behaviors at short separations and exploring their implications for semiclassical instantons in the Georgi-Glashow model.

Contribution

It provides new numerical insights into monopole chain configurations and their behavior in the periodic limit, connecting monopole solutions to instanton phenomena.

Findings

Asymmetry increases at shorter monopole separations.

In the periodic limit, instanton chains have divergent action or diminish.

Numerical results clarify monopole chain behavior in gauge theories.

Abstract

We present numerical results for chains of SU(2) BPS monopoles constructed from Nahm data. The long chain limit reveals an asymmetric behavior transverse to the periodic direction, with the asymmetry becoming more pronounced at shorter separations. This analysis is motivated by a search for semiclassical finite temperature instantons in the 3D SU(2) Georgi-Glashow model, but it appears that in the periodic limit the instanton chains either have logarithmically divergent action or wash themselves out.