Confined Vortices in Topologically Massive U(1)$\times$U(1) Theory

Abstract

We report on a new topological vortex solution in U(1)$\times$U(1) Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory. The existence of the vortex is envisaged by analytical means, and a numerical solution is obtained by integrating the equations of motion. These vortices have a long-range force because one of the U(1)s remains unbroken in the infrared, which is guarded by the Coleman-Hill theorem. The sum of the winding numbers of an ensemble of vortices has to vanish; otherwise the system would have a logarithmically divergent energy. In turn, these vortices exhibit classical confinement. We investigate the rich parameter space of the solutions, and show that one recovers the Abrikosov-Nielsen-Olesen, U(1) Maxwell-Chern-Simons, U(1) pure Chern-Simons and global vortices as various limiting cases. Unlike these limiting cases, the higher winding solutions of our vortices carry non-integer charges under the broken U(1). This is the first vortex solution exhibiting such behavior.

Comments: 11 pages, 8 figures