Cosmic vortons and particle physics constraints

Cosmological Lithium Solution from Discrete Gauged B-L

The cosmological lithium problem-that theory predicts a primordial abundance far higher than the observed value-has resisted decades of attempts by cosmologists, nuclear physicists, and astronomers alike to root out systematics. We reconsider this problem in the setting of the standard model extended by gauged baryon minus lepton number, which we spontaneously break by a scalar with charge six. Cosmic strings from this breaking can support interactions converting three protons into three positrons, and we argue that an "electric"-"magnetic" interplay can give this process an amplified, strong-scale cross section in an analog of the Callan-Rubakov effect. We suggest such cosmic strings have disintegrated O(1) of the primordial lithium nuclei, and lay out what is necessary for this scheme to succeed. To our knowledge this is the first new physics mechanism with microphysical justification for the abundance of lithium uniquely to be modified after big bang nucleosynthesis.

Stable Cosmic Vortons in Bosonic Field Theory

Stable ring solutions supported by the angular momentum caused by superconducting charge and current have been suggested to exist in the gauged U(1)×U(1) field theory. We construct potentially cosmologically relevant solutions using gradient flow for the first time and present the strongest evidence to date that they are stable to axial and, crucially, nonaxial perturbations. More importantly, we illustrate quantitative agreement with semianalytic predictions based on the thin string approximation, which validates world sheet action approaches to their formation and evolution.