Electroweak monopoles and electroweak baryogenesis

Abstract

We describe electroweak monopoles within the Born-Infeld extension of $SU(2)_L\times U(1)_Y$ electroweak theory. We argue for topological stability of these monopoles and computed their mass in terms of the Born-Infeld mass parameters. We then propose a new mechanism for electroweak baryogenesis which takes advantage of the following salient features of the electroweak monopoles: (i) monopoles support extra CP violation in the topological sector of the electroweak theory; (ii) they mediate unsuppressed baryon number violating interactions; (iii) non-thermal production of monopoles during the electroweak phase transitions generates departure from thermal equilibrium. We demonstrate that the observed baryon asymmetry of the universe can be explained in our theory in the presence of electroweak monopoles of mass $M\sim 10^{4}$ TeV.