München 2009 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 25: Quantenfeldtheorie

T 25.2: Talk

Friday, March 13, 2009, 14:15–14:30, M010

Electroweak Sphaleron with Spin and Charge — •Burkhard Kleihaus, Jutta Kunz, and Michael Leissner — Universität Oldenburg

The Klinkhamer-Manton sphaleron of the electroweak interaction is a static classical saddlepoint of the energy functional, representing the top of the energy barrier between topologically inequivalent vacua. The rate of baryon number violating processes is largely determined by the Boltzmann factor, containing the energy of the sphaleron. We show that, at finite weak mixing angle the sphaleron solution of Weinberg-Salam theory can be endowed with angular momentum proportional to the electric charge. Carrying baryon number 1/2 these sphalerons with spin and charge may contribute to baryon number violating processes.