Analytic construction of sphaleron-like solution invoking higher dimensional gauge theory

Abstract

We perform analytic construction of a sphaleron-like solution in the 4-dimensional (4D) space-time invoking the framework of 5D SU(2) gauge theory. By the sphaleron-like solution we mean a static finite energy solution to the equation of motion, which carries the Chern-Simons number $N_{\text{CS}}=\frac{1}{2}$. Since we are interested in the static solution in the low-energy effective theory, we focus on the part of the action which contains only the gauge fields in the 4D space (not space-time), $(A_i,A_y)(i=1,2,3)$ and keep only the Kaluza-Klein zero modes of these fields. Interestingly, the self-duality condition in this 4D space is known to be nothing but the BPS condition for the 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole, once the extra-space component $A_y$ is identified with the adjoint scalar, needed for the monopole solution. Thus, the sphaleron-like solution is based on the BPS monopole embedded in the higher dimensional space-time, which may be interpreted as a self-dual gauge field. By use of the lesson we learn in the case of the instanton in ordinary 4D space-time, we achieve the sphaleron-like configuration of $A_i$, which carries $N_{\text{CS}}=\frac{1}{2}$. As a characteristic feature of this construction invoking higher dimensional gauge theory, in clear contrast to the case of the ordinary BPS monopole, the VEV of the adjoint scalar is topologically fixed, and therefore the mass of the sphaleron-like solution is determined to be $M_{\text{sp}}=\frac{4\pi }{g_4^2}\frac{1}{R}$ ($g_4$: 4D gauge coupling constant, $R$: the radius of the circle as the extra space). We also argue that the sphaleron-like solution may be regarded as a saddle point of the energy in the space of static field configurations.

Comments: 20 pages, 1 figure