Cinderella Strings

TL;DR

This paper explores a new class of electroweak string solutions with a W-condensate, demonstrating their gauge equivalence to known strings and providing new asymptotic descriptions for large winding numbers.

Contribution

It introduces modified electroweak string solutions with a W-condensate and proves their gauge equivalence to existing strings, along with developing large-$N$ asymptotic formulas.

Findings

Solutions with W-condensate are gauge equivalent to standard electroweak strings.

Explicit constructions for arbitrary winding numbers $N$.

New asymptotic expressions for large-$N$ strings.

Abstract

We investigate recent claims concerning a new class of cosmic string solutions in the Weinberg-Salam model. They have the general form of previously discussed semi-local and electroweak strings, but are modified by the presence of a non-zero W-condensate in the core of the string. We explicitly construct such solutions for arbitrary values of the winding number $N$. We then prove that they are gauge equivalent to bare electroweak strings with winding number $N-1$. We also develop new asymptotic expressions for large-$N$ strings.