Incarnations of Instantons

Abstract

Yang-Mills instantons in a pure Yang-Mills theory in four Euclidean space can be promoted to particle-like topological solitons in d=4+1 dimensional space-time. When coupled to Higgs fields, they transform themselves in the Higgs phase into Skyrmions, lumps and sine-Gordon kinks, with trapped inside a non-Abelian domain wall, non-Abelian vortex and monopole string, respectively. Here, we point out that a closed monopole string, non-Abelian vortex sheet and non-Abelian domain wall in $S^1$, $S^2$ and $S^3$ shapes, respectively, are all Yang-Mills instantons if their $S^1$, $S^2$ and $S^3$ moduli, respectively, are twisted along their world-volumes.

Comments: 17 pages, 3 figures, v2: published version