Vortex clusters and vortex-filled bubbles in a modified Abelian-Higgs model

Abstract

We investigate a single-component Abelian-Higgs model with an eighth-order scalar potential whose vacuum manifold consists of two disconnected circles. The model supports two species of vortices and domain walls interpolating between the two vacuum components. We find type-1.5-like behavior characterized by nonmonotonic intervortex interactions and bound states of spatially separated vortices. Inner-vacuum vortices form clusters through short-range repulsion and long-range attraction, whereas outer-vacuum vortices form vortex-filled bubbles in which a closed domain wall confines multiple inner-vacuum-vortex cores. We construct the domain wall analytically, derive the asymptotic vortex-wall interactions, and analyze the fluctuation spectra of coincident multivortices to identify their splitting instabilities.