Thin-Wall Monopoles in a False Vacuum

Abstract

We study numerically the existence in a false vacuum, of magnetic monopoles which are ``thin-walled'', \ie, which correspond to a spherical region of radius $R$ that is essentially trivial surrounded by a wall of thickness $\Delta\ll R$, hence the name thin wall, and finally an exterior region that essentially corresponds to a pure Abelian magnetic monopole. Such monopoles were dubbed false monopoles and can occur in non-abelian gauge theories where the symmetry-broken vacuum is actually the false vacuum. This idea was first proposed in \cite{Kumar:2010mv}, however, {the proof of the existence of thin-wall, false monopoles given there }was incorrect. Here we fill this lacuna and demonstrate numerically{, for an appropriately modifed potential,} the existence of thin-wall false monopoles. The decay via quantum tunnelling of the false monopoles could be of importance to cosmological scenarios which entertain epochs in which the universe is trapped in a symmetry broken false vacuum.