Einstein-Yang-Mills sphalerons and fermion number non-conservation

TL;DR

This paper discusses how Einstein-Yang-Mills sphalerons influence high-energy transition processes, leading to increased transition rates and fermion number non-conservation due to topological effects.

Contribution

It highlights the significance of Einstein-Yang-Mills sphalerons in high-energy transitions and their role in fermion number violation.

Findings

Sphalerons are crucial in high-energy transition processes.

Existence of sphalerons enhances transition rates.

Fermion number non-conservation is linked to sphaleron dynamics.

Abstract

It is argued that the sphaleron solutions appearing in the Einstein-Yang-Mills theory are important in the transition processes at extremely high energies. Namely, when the energy exceeds the sphaleron mass, the existence of these solutions ensures constructive interference on the set of the overbarrier transition histories interpolating between distinct topological sectors of the theory. This has to lead to an enhancement of the transition rate and the related non-conservation of the fermion number.