Gravitating axially symmetric monopole-antimonopole chains and vortex rings

We discuss static axially symmetric solutions of 577(2) Yang-Mills-Higgs theory coupled to Einstein gravity. These regular asymptotically fiat solutions represent monopoles, monopole-antimonopole chains, vortex ring solutions as well as new configurations which appear only for large values of the Higgs self-coupling λ. The solutions are characterized by the node structure of the Higgs field, which vanishes at m isolated points for monopole- antimonopole chains, whereas for vortex rings it vanishes along one or more rings, centered around the symmetry axis