Semi-local cosmic strings and the cosmological constant problem

We study the cosmological constant problem in a three-dimensional N = 2 supergravity theory with gauge group SU (2)<sub>global</sub> × U (1)<sub>local</sub>. The model we consider is known to admit string-like configurations, the so-called semi-local cosmic strings. We show t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Edelstein Glaubach, José Daniel
Formato: Articulo
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: 1997
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Acceso en línea:http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/122981
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0370269396013858?via%3Dihub
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Sumario:We study the cosmological constant problem in a three-dimensional N = 2 supergravity theory with gauge group SU (2)<sub>global</sub> × U (1)<sub>local</sub>. The model we consider is known to admit string-like configurations, the so-called semi-local cosmic strings. We show that the stability of these solitonic solutions is provided by supersymmetry through the existence of a lower bound for the energy, even though the manifold of the Higgs vacuum does not contain non-contractible loops. Charged Killing spinors do exist over configurations that saturate the Bogomol'nyi bound, as a consequence of an Aharonov-Bohmlike effect. Nevertheless, there are no physical fermionic zero modes on these backgrounds. The exact vanishing of the cosmological constant does not imply, then, Bose-Fermi degeneracy. This provides a non-trivial example of the recent claim made by Witten on the vanishing of the cosmological constant in three dimensions without unphysical degeneracies.