Knot solitons in modified Ginzburg-Landau model

Abstract

We study a modified version of the Ginzburg-Landau model suggested by Ward and show that Hopfions exist in it as stable static solutions, for values of the Hopf invariant up to at least 7. We also find that their properties closely follow those of their counterparts in the Faddeev-Skyrme model. Finally, we lend support to Babaev's conjecture that longer core lengths yield more stable solitons and propose a possible mechanism for constructing Hopfions in pure Ginzburg-Landau model.