Published December 15, 1993 | Version v1
Journal article

Sphaleron barrier in the presence of fermions

  • 1. Fachbereich Physik, Universitaet Oldenburg, Postfach 2503, D-26111 Oldenburg (Germany)
  • 2. Instituut voor Theoretische Fysica, Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht, NL-3508 TA Utrecht (Netherlands)

Description

We calculate the minimal energy path over the sphaleron barrier in the presence of fermions, assuming that the fermions of a doublet are degenerate in mass. This allows for spherically symmetric Ansa$iuml---tze for the fields, when the mixing angle dependence is neglected. While light fermions have little influence on the barrier, the presence of heavy fermions (MF∼1 TeV) strongly deforms the barrier, giving rise to additional sphalerons for very heavy fermions (MF∼10 TeV). Heavy fermions form nontopological solitons in the vacuum sector

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review. D, Particles Fields
Journal Volume
48
Journal Issue
12
Journal Page Range
p. 5905-5916.
ISSN
0556-2821
CODEN
PRVDAQ