Inversion symmetric 3-monopoles and the Atiyah-Hitchin manifold

Abstract

We consider 3-monopoles symmetric under inversion symmetry. We show that the moduli space of these monopoles is an Atiyah-Hitchin submanifold of the 3-monopole moduli space. This allows what is known about 2-monopole dynamics to be translated into results about the dynamics of 3-monopoles. Using a numerical ADHMN construction we compute the monopole energy density at various points on two interesting geodesics. The first is a geodesic over the two-dimensional rounded cone submanifold corresponding to right angle scattering and the second is a closed geodesic for three orbiting monopoles.