Gravitational effects on Yang-Mills topology

Exact pseudoparticle solutions to the SU(2) Yang-Mills-Einstein equations are presented. The Yang-Mills solution has vanishing stress tensor and so does not disturb the geometry, which is taken to be that of a Schwarzschild black-hole. By contrast, the topology of the Yang-Mills solution is determined by that of the gravitational field. Remarkably, this implies that gravity, independent of its coupling strength, may influence elementary particle phenomena via its non-trivial topology. (Auth.)