Collision induced decay of metastable baby skyrmions
Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2000.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | eng |
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2005
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8722 |
| _version_ | 1826200341466578944 |
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| author | Dwyer, Daniel A. (Daniel Andrew), 1976- |
| author2 | Krishna Rajagopal. |
| author_facet | Krishna Rajagopal. Dwyer, Daniel A. (Daniel Andrew), 1976- |
| author_sort | Dwyer, Daniel A. (Daniel Andrew), 1976- |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2000. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:34:58Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | mit-1721.1/8722 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:34:58Z |
| publishDate | 2005 |
| publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/87222019-04-11T07:13:27Z Collision induced decay of metastable baby skyrmions Dwyer, Daniel A. (Daniel Andrew), 1976- Krishna Rajagopal. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics. Physics. Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2000. Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-90). Many extensions of the standard model predict heavy metastable particles which may be modeled as solitons (skyrmions of the Higgs field), relating their particle number to a winding number. Previous work has shown that the electroweak interactions admit processes in which these solitons decay, violating standard model baryon number. We motivate the hypothesis that baryon-number-violating decay is a generic outcome of collisions between these heavy particles. We do so by exploring a 2+ 1 dimensional theory which also possesses metastable skyrmions. We use relaxation techniques to determine the size, shape and energy of static solitons in their ground state. These solitons could decay by quantum mechanical tunneling. Classically, they are metastable: only a finite excitation energy is required to induce their decay. We attempt to induce soliton decay in a classical simulation by colliding pairs of solitons. We analyze the collision of solitons with varying inherent stabilities and varying incident velocities and orientations. Our results suggest that winding-number violating decay is a generic outcome of collisions. All that is required is sufficient (not necessarily very large) incident velocity; no fine-tuning of initial conditions is required. by Daniel D. Dwyer. S.B. 2005-08-23T14:44:54Z 2005-08-23T14:44:54Z 2000 2000 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8722 48005673 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 90 p. 4946668 bytes 4946429 bytes application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| spellingShingle | Physics. Dwyer, Daniel A. (Daniel Andrew), 1976- Collision induced decay of metastable baby skyrmions |
| title | Collision induced decay of metastable baby skyrmions |
| title_full | Collision induced decay of metastable baby skyrmions |
| title_fullStr | Collision induced decay of metastable baby skyrmions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Collision induced decay of metastable baby skyrmions |
| title_short | Collision induced decay of metastable baby skyrmions |
| title_sort | collision induced decay of metastable baby skyrmions |
| topic | Physics. |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8722 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dwyerdanieladanielandrew1976 collisioninduceddecayofmetastablebabyskyrmions |