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# A simplified model of the formation of structures in the dark matter, and a background of very long gravitational waves

## 1 Introduction

A study of of a formation of dark matter objects in the universe is based on N-body simulations, which are very time consuming. In this situation a simplified approach may become useful, because it permits to investigate rapidly by analytical or by simple numerical calculations many different variants , and obtain crudly some new principally important features of the problem which could be lost or not visible during a long numerical work.

The modern theory of a large scale structure is based on the ideas of Zeldovich (1970) about a formation of strongly non-spherical structures during non-linear stages of a development of the gravitational instability, known as ”Zeldovich’s pancakes”. The numerical simulations started by Doroshkevich et al. (1980) had been performed subsequently by many groups, revealing complicated structures of the new born objects (see e.g. Doroshkevich et al., 1999).

Here we derive and solve equations for a simple model of a dynamical behaviour of a compressible rotating spheroid in which a motion along both axies takes place in the common gravitational field of a uniform spheroid, and under the action of the isotropic pressure (taken into account in the approximate non-differential way), and otherwise independently on each other. Due to non-interacting particles of the dark matter a strong compression does not lead to a formation of the shock wave and additional energy losses due to radiation at increasing of a temperature.. All losses are connected with a runaway particles, and relaxation consists only in the phase mixing leading effectively to a transformation of the kinetic energy of the ordered motion (collapse) into the kinetic energy of the chaotic motion, and to creation an effective pressure and thermal energy. In presence of the chaotic motion the pancake formed during the collapse has a finite minimal thickness, because particles cross the equatorial plane non-simultaneously, forming therefore the effective pressure, which ”stops” the contraction. These effects may be described approximately in the hydrodynamical approach, in which there are no shock waves and the main transport process is an effective bulk viscosity, leading to relaxation and to a damping of the ordered motion. This relaxation is based on the idea of a ”violent relaxation” of Lynden-Bell (1967). The system of the ordinary differential equations is derived, which describes the dynamical behaviour of the compressible spheroid, where the relaxation and losses of the energy, mass, and angular momentum are taken into accound phenomenologically. In absence of any dissipation these equations describe a self-consistent conservative system, where gravitational and thermal pressure forces are present. Namely, the equilibrium solution of these equation describes a Maclaurin spheriod, where the density is not prescribed but is found self-consistently, when the effective entropy is known. We consider here only non-relativistic dark matter with a relations between the density $`\rho `$, energy density $`E`$, pressure $`P`$, and specific entropy $`S`$ as

$$\rho E=\frac{3}{2}P,P\rho ^{5/3},E\rho ^{2/3}\mathrm{at}\mathrm{constant}S.$$

Solution of simple ordinary equations reveals some interesting features of the collapse of non-interacting matter, which had not been noticed earlier. The collapse of a spherioid, leading to the formation of a pancake may be continued by the fornation of a transient oblate figure, strongly elongated along the axis of a symmetry with a ratio of the axis $`c`$ to the equatorial radius $`a`$ : $`c/a5`$. Formation of such transient figures, appearing only at low rotation, could be expected in central parts of the collapsing dark matter objects during initial stages of the collapse, when the influence of the outer non-uniform part of the cloud is still negligible.

We have found, that at a realistic rate of the relaxation rate with a characteristic time equal to 3 local Jeans times, the oscillations do not damp completely, and about 1/10 of the initial amplitude of a velocity survives after at least 10 oscillationl periods. That means that the most massive dark matter objects may be still in the oscillatory state. These oscillations, as well as variable gravitational fields of the collapsing dark matter objects could be important for the the interpretation of the observed picture of the cosmic microvave background (CMB) fluctuations. Very long gravitational waves emitted mainly during the first stage of the pancake formation (see Thuan and Ostriker, 1974; Novikov, 1976) could be also important for the CMB fluctuations (Doroshkevich et al., 1977), as well as for the gravitational lensing of the distant objects.

## 2 Properties of a Maclaurin spheroid

Let us consider a spheroid with semi-axies $`a=b>c`$

$$\frac{x^2+y^2}{a^2}+\frac{z^2}{c^2}=1,$$
(1)
and rotating uniformly with an angular velocity $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. Let us approximate the density of matter $`\rho `$ in the spheroid as uniform. The mass $`m`$ and total angular momentum $`M`$ of the spheroid are connected with the angular velosity and semi-axies as (Landau, Lifshits, 1988)

$$m=\frac{4\pi }{3}a^2c\rho ,M=\frac{2}{5}ma^2\mathrm{\Omega }.$$
(2)
Introducing $`k=c/a<1`$, we may express the gravitational energy $`U_g`$ as

$$U_g=\frac{3Gm^2}{5a}\frac{\mathrm{arccos}k}{\sqrt{1k^2}},$$
(3)
what gives $`U=3Gm^2/5a`$ for a sphere. The gravitational forces inside the uniform spheriod $`F_x,F_y,F_z`$ are expressed via the grvitational potential $`\varphi `$ as $`𝐅=\varphi `$, and are defined by the relations

$$F_x=\frac{2\pi G\rho x}{1k^2}\left[k^2\frac{k\mathrm{arccos}k}{\sqrt{1k^2}}\right],F_y=\frac{y}{x}F_x,$$
(4)
$$F_z=\frac{4\pi G\rho z}{1k^2}\left[1\frac{k\mathrm{arccos}k}{\sqrt{1k^2}}\right].$$

The gravitational potential with normalization $`\varphi 0`$ at infinity, inside the spheroid is expressed as

$$\varphi =\frac{1}{2}(xF_x+yF_y+zF_z)2\pi G\rho a^2\frac{k\mathrm{arccos}k}{\sqrt{1k^2}}.$$
(5)
During the process of relaxation a form of the spheroid changes between oblate and prolate ones. When $`c>a=b`$ the following relations are valid instead of (3)-(5)

$$U_g=\frac{3Gm^2}{5a}\frac{\mathrm{Arch}k}{\sqrt{k^21}},$$
(6)
$$F_x=\frac{2\pi G\rho x}{k^21}\left[k^2\frac{k\mathrm{Arch}k}{\sqrt{k^21}}\right],F_y=\frac{y}{x}F_x,$$
(7)
$$F_z=\frac{4\pi G\rho z}{k^21}\left[1\frac{k\mathrm{Arch}k}{\sqrt{k^21}}\right].$$

$$\varphi =\frac{1}{2}(xF_x+yF_y+zF_z)2\pi G\rho a^2\frac{k\mathrm{Arch}k}{\sqrt{k^21}}.$$
(8)
Here the positive branch of $`\mathrm{Arch}k`$ should be used.

## 3 Equations of motion

For a real Maclaurin equilibrium noncompressible spheroid the oblateness $`k`$ is connected with the angular velocity (or angular momentum)

$$\frac{k(1+2k^2)}{(1k^2)^{3/2}}\mathrm{arccos}k\frac{3k^2}{1k^2}=\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }^2}{2\pi G\rho }=\frac{25}{6G}\frac{M^2}{m^3}\frac{k}{a}.$$
(9)
We consider a case of non-collisional particles when the density varies in time, and approximate the form and gravitational potential of the body by the form and gravitational potential of Maclaurin spheroid. Here pressure does not nesessary balance the garvitational and centrifugal forces. Consider a uniform spheroid with a constant mass and angular momentum, and with a total ”thermal” energy of non-relativistic dark matter particles $`E_{th}V^{2/3}(abc)^{2/3}`$ ($`V`$ is a volume of a spheroid, $`a=b`$). Equations of motion for this spheroid are written for the radial accelerations at the equator and at the pole for semiaxes $`\ddot{a},\ddot{c}`$

$$\ddot{a}=\frac{25}{4}\frac{M^2}{m^2a^3}+\frac{3}{2}\frac{Gm}{a^2(1k^2)}\left[k\frac{\mathrm{arccos}k}{\sqrt{1k^2}}\right]+\frac{10E_{th,in}}{3am}\left(\frac{a_{in}b_{in}c_{in}}{abc}\right)^{2/3},$$
(10)
$$\ddot{c}=3\frac{Gm}{a^2(1k^2)}\left[1\frac{k\mathrm{arccos}k}{\sqrt{1k^2)}}\right]+\frac{10E_{th,in}}{3cm}\left(\frac{a_{in}b_{in}c_{in}}{abc}\right)^{2/3}.$$
(11)
Here $`E_{th,in},a_{in}=b_{in},c_{in}`$ are the initial values of corresponding parameters. Equations (10),(11) describe the dynamics of the concervative system with a linear dependence of the velocity on the coordinates

$$v_x=\frac{\dot{a}x}{a},,v_y=\frac{\dot{b}y}{b},v_z=\frac{\dot{c}z}{c},$$
(12)
and Lagrange function

$$L=U_{kin}U_{pot},U_{pot}=U_{rot}+U_g+E_{th},$$
(13)
$$U_{rot}=\frac{5}{4}\frac{M^2}{ma^2},E_{th}=\frac{}{(abc)^{2/3}},=E_{th,in}(a_{in}b_{in}c_{in})^{2/3}$$

The function $`U_g`$ defined in (3), and the rotational energy from (13) should be used during the variation of $`L`$ in the form

$$U_g=\frac{6Gm^2}{5(a+b)}\frac{\mathrm{arccos}k^{}}{\sqrt{1k^2}},k^{}=\frac{2c}{a+b},U_{rot}=\frac{5}{2}\frac{M^2}{m(a^2+b^2)}.$$
(14)
The kinetic energy is equal to

$$U_{kin}=\frac{1}{2}\rho _V\left[\left(\frac{\dot{a}x}{a}\right)^2+\left(\frac{\dot{b}y}{b}\right)^2+\left(\frac{\dot{c}z}{c}\right)^2\right]𝑑x𝑑y𝑑z=\frac{m}{10}(\dot{a}^2+\dot{b}^2+\dot{c}^2).$$
(15)
Equations of motion (10),(11) are the Lagrange equations with the Lagrange function (13)111We consider here for simplicity that the relaxation is accompanied by the isotropization of the distribution function in the velociyu space. The violent relaxation has a non-collisional origin, and if the anizotropic instability has a lower increment the anizotropy in the velocity space may be preserved. In the limiting case of a pure anizotropic relaxation we have three (or two in our case) pressure and entropy functions, so that
$$E_{th}=m\left(\frac{_x}{a^2}+\frac{_y}{b^2}+\frac{_z}{c^2}\right),P_x=\frac{2}{3}\rho \frac{_x}{a^2},P_y=\frac{2}{3}\rho \frac{_y}{b^2},P_z=\frac{2}{3}\rho \frac{_z}{c^2}.$$
We should have the terms $`!0_x/a^3m`$ and $`!0_z/c^3m`$ instead of the last terms in (10),(11), respectively. A corresponding changes should be done also in the equations determining increase of entropies, and different losses. Solutions of these equations describe either pure oscillations, or the total disruption, depending on the initial conditions. For the prolate spheroid the following relations are valid instead of (10),(11),(14)

$$\ddot{a}=\frac{25}{4}\frac{M^2}{m^2a^3}\frac{3}{2}\frac{Gm}{a^2(k^21)}\left[k\frac{\mathrm{Arch}k}{\sqrt{k^21}}\right]+\frac{10E_{th,in}}{3am}\left(\frac{a_{in}b_{in}c_{in}}{abc}\right)^{2/3},$$
(16)
$$\ddot{c}=3\frac{Gm}{a^2(k^21)}\left[1\frac{k\mathrm{Arch}k}{\sqrt{k^21)}}\right]+\frac{10E_{th,in}}{3cm}\left(\frac{a_{in}b_{in}c_{in}}{abc}\right)^{2/3},$$
(17)
$$U_g=\frac{6Gm^2}{5(a+b)}\frac{\mathrm{Arch}k^{}}{\sqrt{k^21}},k^{}=\frac{2c}{a+b},U_{rot}=\frac{5}{2}\frac{M^2}{m(a^2+b^2)}.$$
(18)
## 4 Equations of motion with dissipation

In the reality there is a relaxation in the collisionless system, connected with a phase mixing which called ”violent relaxation” (Lynden-Bell, 1967). This relaxation leads to a dissipation of the energy of the kinetic motion and increase of the chaotic (thermal) energy and pressure. As a result of this dissipation the kinetic motion will suffer from an effective drag force, which account is described phenomenologically by adding of the terms

$$\frac{\dot{a}}{\tau _{rel}}\mathrm{and}\frac{\dot{c}}{\tau _{rel}}$$
(19)
in the right parts of equations (10),(11) respectively. We consider the nonrelativistic dark matter with the relation between the pressure $`P`$ and the thermal energy $`E_{th}`$ of the whole spheroid as

$$E_{th}=\frac{3}{2}\frac{Pm}{\rho }.$$
(20)
Dissipation (19) leads to a heat production. Let us find a rate of a heat production leading to the growth of the entropy of the spheroid matter. Write equations of motion (10),(11) with account of (5),(13),(19) separately for $`a,b`$ and $`c`$, allowing also the energy, mass and angular momentum losses

$$\frac{1}{m}\frac{d}{dt}\left(\frac{m^2\dot{a}^2}{10}\right)=\dot{a}\frac{U_g}{a}\dot{a}\frac{U_{rot}}{a}\dot{a}\frac{E_{th}}{a}\frac{1}{5}m\frac{\dot{a}^2}{\tau _{rel}},$$
(21)
$$\frac{1}{m}\frac{d}{dt}\left(\frac{m^2\dot{b}^2}{5}\right)=\dot{b}\frac{U_g}{b}\dot{b}\frac{U_{rot}}{b}\dot{b}\frac{E_{th}}{b}\frac{1}{5}m\frac{\dot{b}^2}{\tau _{rel}},$$
(22)
$$\frac{1}{m}\frac{d}{dt}\left(\frac{m^2\dot{c}^2}{5}\right)=\dot{c}\frac{U_g}{c}\dot{c}\frac{U_{rot}}{c}\dot{c}\frac{E_{th}}{c}\frac{1}{5}m\frac{\dot{c}^2}{\tau _{rel}},$$
(23)
$$\tau _{rel}=2\pi \alpha _{rel}\sqrt{\frac{abc}{3Gm}}.$$
(24)
Note that in (21)-(23) the gravitational energy should be taken in the form (14). We have scaled here the relaxation time $`\tau _{rel}`$ by the Jeans characteristic time

$$\tau _J=\frac{2\pi }{\omega _J}=\frac{2\pi }{\sqrt{4\pi Gm}}=2\pi \sqrt{\frac{abc}{3Gm}},$$
(25)
with a constant value of $`\alpha _{rel}`$. Collecting together (21)-(23) we find the energy balance relation in the form

$$\frac{dU_{tot}}{dt}=\frac{U_g}{m}\frac{dm}{dt}+\frac{U_{rot}}{m}\frac{dm}{dt}+\frac{U_{rot}}{M}\frac{dM}{dt}+\frac{E_{th}}{}\frac{d}{dt}2\frac{U_{kin}}{\tau _{rel}}\frac{U_{kin}}{m}\frac{dm}{dt},$$
(26)
$$U_{tot}=U_{kin}+U_g+U_{rot}+E_{th}.$$

The process of relaxation is accompanied also by the energy, mass, and angular momentum losses from the system. We suggest, that these losses take place only in non-stationary phases, so these rates are proportional to the kinetic energy $`U_{kin}`$, the characterictic times for mass, angular momentum and energy losses $`\tau _{ml}`$, $`\tau _{Ml}`$,$`\tau _{el}`$ are considerably greater then $`\tau _{rel}`$. The equations describing different losses may be phenomenologically written as

$$\frac{dU_{tot}}{dt}=\frac{U_{kin}}{\tau _{ml}},$$
(27)
$$\frac{dm}{dt}=\frac{mU_{kin}}{U_g\tau _{ml}},U_g<0,$$
(28)
$$\frac{dM}{dt}=\frac{MU_{kin}}{U_g\tau _{Ml}}.$$
(29)
Scaling all the characteristic times by the Jeans value, like in the case (24) of $`\tau _{rel}`$, we have

$$\tau _{el}=\alpha _{el}\tau _J,\tau _{ml}=\alpha _{ml}\tau _J,\tau _{Ml}=\alpha _{Ml}\tau _J,$$
(30)
with constant values of $`\alpha _i(i=el,ml,Ml)`$. Combining (28),(29), we find a relation

$$\frac{M}{M_{in}}=\left(\frac{m}{m_{in}}\right)^{\frac{\alpha _{ml}}{\alpha _{Ml}}},$$
(31)
where $`m_{in}`$ and $`M_{in}`$ are the initial values of corresponding parameters. The function $``$ determines the entropy of the matter in the spheroid, so that, using (13), we have

$$\frac{dE_{th}}{dt}+P\frac{dV}{dt}=\frac{1}{(abc)^{2/3}}\frac{d}{dt},$$
(32)
$$E_{th}=\frac{}{(abc)^{2/3}},V=\frac{4\pi }{3}abc,P=\frac{2}{3}\frac{E_{th}}{V}.$$

Using (27)-(29) in (26) we obtain the equation for the entropy function $``$ in presence of different losses in the form

$$\frac{d}{dt}=(abc)^{2/3}U_{kin}\left[\left(\frac{2}{\tau _{rel}}\frac{1}{\tau _{el}}\frac{2}{\tau _{ml}}\right)\frac{U_{rot}}{U_g}\left(\frac{2}{\tau _{Ml}}\frac{1}{\tau _{ml}}\right)+\frac{U_{kin}}{U_g\tau _{ml}}\right].$$
(33)
## 5 Non-dimensional equations

The equations, describing approximately the dynamics of the fomation of a stationary dark matter object include equations of motion (10),(11) with adding terms from (19); energy equation (33) with account of (3),(13),(15); and equations (27)-(29), describing the losses of the energy, mass and angular momentum. The mass losses are also taken into account in the equations of motion, written in the form (21)-(23). For obtaining a numerical solution of these equations let us write them in non-dimensional variables. Introduce the following non-dimensional variables

$$\stackrel{~}{t}=\frac{t}{t_0},\stackrel{~}{a}=\frac{a}{a_0},\stackrel{~}{c}=\frac{c}{a_0},\stackrel{~}{m}=\frac{m}{m_0},\stackrel{~}{M}=\frac{M}{M_0},$$
(34)
$$\stackrel{~}{\rho }=\frac{\rho }{\rho _0},\stackrel{~}{U}=\frac{U}{U_0},\stackrel{~}{E}_{th}=\frac{E_{th}}{U_0},=\frac{}{}_0,\stackrel{~}{\tau }_i=\frac{\tau _i}{t_0}.$$

The process, with account of mass and angular momentum losses, is described by the following non-dimensional system of equations

$$\ddot{a}=\frac{\dot{a}}{m}\frac{a(2\dot{a}^2+\dot{c}^2)}{6\tau _{ml}a_k}+\frac{25}{4}\frac{M^2}{m^2a^3}+\frac{3}{2}\frac{m}{a^2}a1_k\frac{\dot{a}}{\tau _{rel}}+\frac{10}{3am}\frac{}{(a^2c)^{2/3}},$$
(35)
$$\ddot{c}=\frac{\dot{c}}{m}\frac{a(2\dot{a}^2+\dot{c}^2)}{6\tau _{ml}a_k}3\frac{m}{a^2}a2_k\frac{\dot{c}}{\tau _{rel}}+\frac{10}{3cm}\frac{}{(a^2c)^{2/3}},$$
(36)
$$\frac{d}{dt}=\frac{m(2\dot{a}^2+\dot{c}^2)}{10}(a^2c)^{2/3}[(\frac{2}{\tau _{rel}}\frac{1}{\tau _{el}}\frac{2}{\tau _{ml}})$$
(37)
$$+\frac{25}{12}\frac{M^2}{m^3aa_k}(\frac{2}{\tau _{Ml}}\frac{1}{\tau _{ml}})+\frac{a(2\dot{a}^2+\dot{c}^2)}{6m\tau _{ml}a_k}],$$

$$\frac{dm}{dt}=\frac{a(2\dot{a}^2+\dot{c}^2)}{6\tau _{ml}a_k},\frac{M}{M_{in}}=\left(\frac{m}{m_{in}}\right)^{\frac{\alpha _{ml}}{\alpha _{Ml}}},\mathrm{\Omega }=\frac{5}{2}\frac{M}{ma^2},$$
(38)
$$\frac{df}{dt}=\mathrm{\Omega }.$$
(39)
Here

$$a_k=\frac{\mathrm{arccos}k}{\sqrt{1k^2}},a1_k=\frac{ka_k}{1k^2},a2_k=\frac{1ka_k}{1k^2}$$
(40)
for the oblate spheriod $`a=b>c`$, and

$$a_k=\frac{\mathrm{Arch}k}{\sqrt{k^21}},a1_k=\frac{ka_k}{k^21},a2_k=\frac{1ka_k}{k^21}$$
(41)
for the prolate spheriod with $`a=b<c`$. In both cases $`a_k+a1_k=ka2_k`$. The rotation phase $`f`$ is calculated in (39) for comparison of the rotation and oscillation processes. When the spheroid is close to the sphere $`|k1|1`$ we have the following expansions

$$a_k\frac{4}{3k}\frac{1}{3k^3},a1_k\frac{1}{k}+\frac{1}{3k^3},a2_k\frac{1}{3k^2}\mathrm{at}a=b>c,$$
(42)
$$a_k\frac{7}{6}\frac{k^2}{6},a1_k\frac{1}{k+1}\frac{1}{6},a2_k\frac{1}{k+1}\frac{k}{6}\mathrm{at}a=b<c.$$

In the case of a very compressed spheroid (pancake) we have the following expansion

$$a_k=\frac{\pi }{2}k+\frac{\pi }{4}k^2\frac{2}{3}k^3,a1_k=\frac{\pi }{2}+2k\frac{3\pi }{4}k^2,a2_k=1\frac{\pi }{2}k+2k^2.$$
(43)
In equations (35)-(39) only non-dimentional variables are used, and ”tilde” sign is omitted for simplicity. The non-dimensional relaxation times $`\tau _i`$ in these equations are written with account of (25),(30) as

$$\tau _i=2\pi \alpha _i\sqrt{\frac{a^2c}{3m}}.$$
(44)
The scaling parameters

$$t_0,a_0,m_0,M_0,\rho _0,U_0,\mathrm{\Omega }_0,_0$$

are connected by the following relations

$$t_0^2=\frac{a_0^3}{Gm_0},M_0^2=Ga_0m_0^3,U_0=\frac{Gm_0^2}{a_0},\rho _0=\frac{m_0}{a_0^3},\mathrm{\Omega }_0=\frac{M_0}{m_0a_0^2},_0=U_0a_0^2,$$
(45)
so that in non-dimensional variables $`m=4\pi a^2c\rho /3`$, $`M=2ma^2\mathrm{\Omega }/5`$. The total nondimensional energy $`\stackrel{~}{U}_{tot}=U_{tot}/U_0`$ is written as (”tilde” is omitted)

$$U_{tot}=\frac{m(2\dot{a}^2+\dot{c}^2)}{10}\frac{3m^2}{5a}a_k+\frac{5}{4}\frac{M^2}{ma^2}+\frac{}{(a^2c)^{2/3}}$$
(46)
## 6 Equilibrium configuration and linear oscillations

In equilibrium there is no dissipation and the following relations follow from (35),(36), connecting the equilibrium parameters

$$\frac{25}{4}\frac{M^2}{m^2a^3}+\frac{3}{2}\frac{m}{a^2}a1_k+\frac{10}{3am}\frac{}{(a^2c)^{2/3}}=0,$$
(47)
$$3\frac{m}{a^2}a2_k+\frac{10}{3cm}\frac{}{(a^2c)^{2/3}}=0.$$
(48)
At given $`m,M`$ and $``$ these equations determine the configuration of the spheroid. Finding $`a`$ from (48)

$$a=\frac{10}{9m^2}\frac{}{k^{5/3}a2_k},$$
(49)
we obtain after its substitution into (47) the relation for determining $`k`$ in the form

$$a1_k+2ka2_k+\frac{15}{4}\frac{M^2}{m}\frac{k^{5/3}a2_k}{}=0.$$
(50)
Taking into account (40), we come to the relation

$$\frac{k(1+2k^2)}{(1k^2)^{3/2}}\mathrm{arccos}k\frac{3k^2}{1k^2}=\frac{75}{4}\frac{M^2}{m}k^{5/3}a2_k=\frac{25}{6}\frac{M^2}{m^3}\frac{k}{a}.$$
(51)
The last relation in (51) follows from the connection (49) between $`a`$ and $``$, and in this form (51) coinsids exactly with the equation (9), determining the form of the Maclaurin spheroid with

$$a=\left(\frac{3m}{4\pi k\rho }\right)^{1/3},$$

of a given mass, density and angular momentum. In our case the density is determined by the entropy $``$. For the spheroid with unit non-dimensional mass $`m`$ and semiaxis $`a`$ we obtain in equilibrium relations determining $`M`$ and $``$ as functions of $`k`$

$$=\frac{9}{10}k^{5/3}a2_k,M^2=\frac{6}{25}(a1_k+2ka2_k).$$
(52)
The spheriod, described by ordinary differential equations for semiaxies $`a`$ and $`c`$ has two levels of freedom in oscilations corresponding to the first $`p`$\- mode, and the first fundamental $`f`$-mode (see Cox, 1980). Consider (without loosing a generality) oscillations of a spheroid with $`m=a=1`$. The $`,U_{tot},m`$ and $`M`$ losses are quadratic to perturbations, so these values are conserved during linear oscillations. For the perturbations of $`\delta a`$ and $`\delta c`$ we have the following equations from (35),(36)

$$\ddot{\delta a}=\frac{75}{4}M^2\delta a+\frac{3}{2}\delta (a1_k)3a1_k\delta a10\frac{}{k^{2/3}}\delta a\frac{20}{9}\frac{}{k^{5/3}}\delta k\frac{\dot{\delta }a}{\tau _{rel}},$$
(53)
$$\ddot{\delta c}=3\delta (a2_k)+6a2_k\delta a10\frac{}{k^{5/3}}\delta a\frac{50}{9}\frac{}{k^{8/3}}\delta k\frac{\dot{\delta c}}{\tau _{rel}}.$$
(54)
The perturbations are expressed via perturbations $`\delta a,\delta c`$ as

$$\delta (a_k)=a2_k\delta k,\delta (a1_k)=\frac{1+a2_k+2ka1_k}{1k^2}\delta k,$$
(55)
$$\delta (a2_k)=\frac{3ka2_ka_k}{1k^2}\delta k,\delta k=\delta c\delta a;\tau _{rel}=2\pi \alpha _{rel}\sqrt{\frac{k}{3}}.$$

The equations (53),(54) with account of (55) may be solved analitically at weak damping for any $`k`$. Consider here for simplicity two limiting cases $`k=1`$ (sphere), and $`k1`$ (pancake). The sphere is related to the nonrotating body with $`M=0`$. In this case we have also

$$a_k=1,a1_k=\frac{2}{3},a2_k=\frac{1}{3},=\frac{3}{10},$$
(56)
$$\delta (a_k)=\frac{\delta k}{3},\delta (a1_k)=\frac{2\delta k}{5},\delta (a2_k)=\frac{4\delta k}{15}.$$

With account of (56) we have from (53),(54) the following equations

$$\ddot{\delta a}=\frac{1}{15}\delta k\delta a\frac{\dot{\delta a}}{\tau _{rel}},\ddot{\delta c}=\frac{13}{15}\delta k\delta a\frac{\dot{\delta c}}{\tau _{rel}}.$$
(57)
These equations are completed by relation $`\delta k=\delta c\delta a`$. Taking $`\delta a,\delta c`$ $`\mathrm{exp}(i\omega t)`$ we come to the characteristic equation

$$\omega ^4\frac{9}{5}\omega ^2+\frac{4}{5}+\frac{i\omega }{\tau _{rel}}\left(2\omega ^2\frac{27}{15}\right)\frac{\omega ^2}{\tau _{rel}^2}=0$$
(58)
The solution of a characteristic equation may be obtained analytically for a weak damping at $`\omega 1/\tau _{rel}`$. The 4 roots of this equation are

$$\omega _{1,2}=\pm 1\frac{i}{2\tau _{rel}},\omega _{3,4}=\pm \sqrt{\frac{4}{5}}\frac{i}{2\tau _{rel}}$$
(59)
The first root corresponds to a pure radial oscillations, and the second one describes the fundamental mode which does not change the volume and which is preserved in the non-compressible fluid. In fact, for a pure radial oscillations with $`\delta k=0`$ we have $`\delta c=\delta a`$, and the equations (57) reduce to $`\ddot{\delta a}=\delta a\frac{\dot{\delta a}}{\tau _{rel}}`$ with a characteristic equation $`\omega ^2+\frac{i\omega }{\tau _{rel}}1=0`$. The solution of this equation is $`\omega _{1,2}=\frac{i}{2\tau _{rel}}\pm \sqrt{1\frac{1}{4\tau _{rel}^2}}`$, which for a small damping obviously correspond to the first two roots in (59). The damping increments are equal for these two modes, what may be seen also from the numerical solution of (35)-(39) for a general nonstationary problem at large $`t`$ (see next section). Note, that in the radial oscillation mode $`\delta a=\delta c`$, and in the fundamental mode $`\delta a0.5\delta c`$.

For the case of a pancake $`k1`$ we have from (43),(52), (55)

$$a_k=\frac{\pi }{2},a1_k=\frac{\pi }{2},a2_k=1,=\frac{9}{10}k^{5/3},M^2=\frac{3\pi }{25},$$
(60)
$$\delta (a_k)=\delta k,\delta (a1_k)=2\delta k,\delta (a2_k)=\frac{\pi \delta k}{2}.$$

With account of (60) we have from (53),(54) the following equations

$$\ddot{\delta a}=\frac{3\pi }{4}\delta a3\delta k\frac{\dot{\delta a}}{\tau _{rel}},\ddot{\delta c}=\frac{5}{k}\delta k3\delta a\frac{\dot{\delta c}}{\tau _{rel}},$$
(61)
with $`\delta k=\delta ck\delta a`$. Taking $`\delta a,\delta c`$ $`\mathrm{exp}(i\omega t)`$ we come to the characteristic equation

$$\omega ^4\left(\frac{5}{k}+\frac{3\pi }{4}\right)\omega ^2+\frac{15\pi }{4}+6+\frac{i\omega }{\tau _{rel}}\left(2\omega ^2\frac{5}{k}\frac{3\pi }{4}\right)\frac{\omega ^2}{\tau _{rel}^2}=0$$
(62)
The solution of a characteristic equation may be obtained analytically for a weak damping at $`\omega 1/\tau _{rel}`$. The 4 roots of this equation are

$$\omega _{1,2}=\pm \sqrt{\frac{5}{k}}\frac{i}{2\tau _{rel}},\omega _{3,4}=\pm \sqrt{\frac{3\pi }{4}}\frac{i}{2\tau _{rel}}$$
(63)
In the pancake the oscillation modes (1,2) and (3,4) are almost independent on each other. In the first two modes $`\delta ak\delta c\delta c`$, what corresponds to rapid oscillations of the thickness of the pancake at almost fixed radius. Two other modes with a low frequency are characterized by relation $`\delta ck\delta a\delta a`$, and correspond to the oscillation of the equatorial radius of the pancake at approximately the same thickness. Here both modes have the same damping increments because we have chosen the same relaxation time for the damping of two degrees of freedom, which may differ in reality for the flat pancake.

The model, developed here may be easily generalized onto the 3 dimensional ellipsoids, where instead of analytical formulae for the gravitational potential and forces we’ll have elliptical integrals. This model will have three degrees of freedom, with the additional one, corresponding to non-axisymmetric perturbations. Contrary to the axisymmetric modes, which are always stable, the non-axisymmetric mode of the spheroid will become unstable at sufficiently large $`M`$, first due to a secular instability appearing only at presence of damping, and at larger $`M`$ the spheriod will become dynamically unstable independently on the presence of the damping. In that case we may expect that in presence of damping the dynamical instability will appear at larger $`M`$, than in the pure conservative case (see Chandrasekhar, 1969). We suppose to investigate the three-dimensional model and its stability in the near future.

## 7 Numerical results

The development of gravitational instability starts from almost Hubble expansion velocity which is transformed into contraction as a result of a developement of gravitational instability. To simplify the problem we start from a nonlinear phase of the instability with an expansion velocity smaller than the Hubble value. We start the simulation from the spherical body of the unit mass, small or zero entropy $`_{in}1`$, and negative total energy $`U_{tot}<0`$. We also specify the parameters, characterizing different dissipations $`\alpha _{rel},\alpha _{el},\alpha _{ml},\alpha _{Ml}`$. The following parameters have been used in all variants of calculations

$$a_{in}=1,c_{in}=1,m_{in}=1,\alpha _{rel}=3,\alpha _{el}=\alpha _{ml}=\alpha _{Ml}=15.$$
(64)
Other four initial parameters $`\dot{a}_{in},\dot{c}_{in},M`$ and $``$ used in calculations are listed in the Table 1, where also the initial $`U_{tot}`$ is represented, which is calculated from (26).

We have used in the calculations the Runge-Kutta code from (Press et al., 1992). The results of the calculations are very transparent, and are represented in figures 1-16. The odd number figures represent time dependences of $`a`$ and $`c`$ axies on time, together with the $`phase=\mathrm{sin}(ph)=\mathrm{sin}(_0^t\mathrm{\Omega }𝑑t)`$, permitting the comparison between the oscillational and rotational motion. In the even number figures the entropy $``$, current mass $`m`$ and current total energy $`U_{tot}`$ are given as functions of the time for the choosen set of the relaxation parameters (64). Here the entropy behaviour is the most interesting, because it is based on the realistic estimation of $`\tau _{rel}`$. The characteristic times of other losses are more difficult to estimate, so they had been choosen equal to $`5\tau _{rel}`$, making these losses practically unimportant.

After the initial expansion the collapse happens, during which the linear size decreases 10-40 times, and in the process of the subsequent relaxation the object approaches the equilibrium, described by relations (52). The relaxation and entropy production, mass and energy losses happens in the most rapid stages at maximal compression, what is reflected in the steps of the functions $`(t),m(t),U_{tot}(t)`$, well visible in figures 8,10,12,14,16. The following remarkable properties should be noted.

1. For a low initial angular momentum, which is probably characteristic for the collapse of the primodial dark matter clouds, the collapse leads initially to the ”pancake”, in accordance of Zeldovich (1970) theory. On the subsequent stage of the expansion the spheroid becomes prolate, and during subsequent phases the spheroid is oscillating on the fundamental mode, changing the form between the prolate and oblate ones. It may be seen especially well in figures 11 and 15, where temporally the prolate figure is formed with $`c/a25`$. We may expect the formation of such transient prolate figures in the central parts of the collapsing dark matter cloud, where the density may be taken as almost uniform, and where the characteristic period of oscillations is much less than the time of the whole body collapse.

2. The phenomenological relaxation time accepted in the calculations seems to be rather realistic (Lynden-Bell, 1967), so the calculated process of the damping should be close to a reality. We have obtained, that oscillations preserve during more than 10 initial characteristic (Jeans) times $`t_J`$. That means, that in the most extended dark matter objects with the largest $`t_J`$ the damping of oscillations is still in progress, and the dark matter objects may be presently in a nonstationary state. The collapsing dark matter ofjects and their oscillations could influence the visible picture of the fluctuations of the cosmic background microwave radiation, which are now under intensive investigation (see Naselsky, Novikov, Novikov, 2002).

3. The description of the dynamics of the spheroid by the system of equations with two degrees of freedom give a possibility of the exitation of only two oscillation modes. In the case of a low rotation when two degrees of freedom are strongly coupled the two modes reduce to the first radial $`p`$-mode, like the main mode of the radial oscillations of the sphere, and the fundamental $`f`$-mode, which almost does not change the total volume, and which survives in the non-compressible sphere (Cox, 1980). The lengths of two axies oscillate with the same period. Excitation of both modes may be distinctly seen in calculations. For some initial conditions the main remaining mode is the $`p`$-mode (figures 7,15); for others (figures 9,11,13) the fundamental $`f`$-mode was mainly excited.

For rapidly rotating bodies, with a large equilibrium ratio of $`a/c`$, the oscillations in two axies are almost independent, and their lengths are oscillating with substantially different periods (figures 1,3,5).

## 8 Emission of very long graviattional waves

Gravitational radiation is produced during the collapse of the nonspherical body. Gravitational radiation during a formation of a pancake was estimated by Thuan and Ostriker (1974), and was improved by Novikov (1975), who took into account the most important stage of the radiation during a bounce. The formula for the estimation of the total energy emitted during the collapse and bounce is

$$U_{GW}0.01\left(\frac{r_g}{a_{eq}}\right)^{7/2}\left(\frac{a_{eq}}{c_{min}}\right)Mc^2.$$
(65)
Here $`a_{eq}`$ is the equilibrium equatorial radius of the pancake, and $`c_{min}`$ is its minimal half-thickness during the bounce, $`r_g=2GM/c^2`$ is the Schwarzschild gravitational radius of the body. From our calculations we have $`a_{eq}/c_{min}100`$. The value of $`r_g/a_{eq}`$ we estimate using the observed average velocity of a galaxy in the rich cluster $`v_g3000`$ km/s, and taking

$$\frac{r_g}{a_{eq}}\left(\frac{v_g}{c}\right)^210^4.$$
(66)
Than the energy carried away by the gravitational wave (GW) may be estimated as $`U_{GW}10^{14}Mc^2`$. If all dark matter had passed through the stage of a pancake formation, than very long GW with a wavelength of the order of the size of the galactic cluster have an average energy density in the universe

$$\epsilon _{GW}10^{14}\rho _{dm}c^2310^{23}\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{cm}^3.$$
(67)
Here we have used for estimation the average dark matter density $`\rho _{dm}=310^{30}`$ g/cm3. The average strength $`E_{GW}`$ of the very long GW may be estimated, taking the relation (Landau and Lifshits, 1993)

$$\epsilon _{GW}=\frac{c^2}{16\pi G}\dot{h}^2,$$
(68)
where $`h`$ is metric tensor perturbation (nondimensional), connected with GW, we consider only the scalar, having in mind the averaged value of this perturbation. Taking into account $`\dot{h}=\omega h=2\pi ch/\lambda `$, $`\lambda 10`$ Mpc is the wavelength of GW of the order of the size of the cluster. From the comparison of (67),(68) we obtain the averaged metric perturbation due to very long GW in the form

$$\overline{h}=\frac{2\lambda }{c^2}\left(\frac{G\epsilon _{GW}}{\pi }\right)^{1/2}610^{11}$$
(69)
for the values of $`\lambda `$ and $`\epsilon _{GW}`$, mentioned above. Insidently we may expect 10 times larger amplitude of the GW, than the averaged over the volume value. We may estimate the angle of the lensing using its linear dependence on the potential difference, and the value of deviation $`1.75`$ arc sec. for the Sun (Zeldovich and Novikov, 1971) which gravitational potential is equal to $`h_{sun}=GM/Rc^2210^6`$. Finally we get for the expected lensing influence of the very long GW

$$\theta _{GW}=\theta _{sun}\frac{10\overline{h}}{h_{sun}}=310^4\theta _{sun}510^4\mathrm{arcsec}.$$
(70)
Such angular resolution is available by the very long base interferometry and the interferometric optical telescopes under construction could give much better angular resolution.

## 9 Conclusions

The simplified model of the collapse and subsequent relaxation of the rotating compressed shperoid may be related to the processes in the central parts ob the dark matter objects. The formation of the transient prolate dark matter spheroid follows from the calculations for slowly rotating (or non-rotating) objects.

For realistic values of the relaxation time we have obtained rather slow damping of the oscillations, indicating that after $`10`$ oscillations the amplitude may remain on the level of 1/10 of the Hubble value of the velosity for a corresponding mass scale. Such oscillations in the dark matter objects of the largest scale may be preserved until the present time.

Interaction of the cosmic microvawe background radiation (CMB) with the dark matter objects on the stage of their collapse and subsequent oscillation phases may influence the visible characteristics of the observed picture of the fluctuations of CMB.

The weak but very long gravitationl waves (GW) emitted mainly on the stages of the collapse and pancake formation form a long wave GW background, which also influence CMB fluctuations (Doroshkevich et al, 1977).

Besides, the existence of such a long GW in the space between the source and the observer may be registered as an action of the gravitational lense. Absence of the appropriate lensing objects in the direction of any observed gravitational lense object may indicate to the existence of dark matter objects without the barion matter presence, or may be the indication to the presence of the very long GW which is moving in the space between us and the lensed object The expected angles of such lensing ($`10^3`$) arc sec. may be available in the near future.

The present approach describing the compressed spheroid by the two degrees of freedom may be evidently generalized for a description of the 3-axis spheroid by the ordinary equations with 3 degrees of freedom. In particular, it would be possible to investigate the influence of the damping processes on the boundaries of the stability of the Maclaurin spheroid for the transformation into the Jacobi 3-axis ellipsoid (secular and dynamical) at large angular momentums. The model could be generalized also for the case of anizotropic relaxation and creation of anizotropic pressure.

Acknowledgement

I grateful to Theoretical Astrophysics Center (TAC), Copenhagen, for hospitality during the work on this paper, and to A.G. Doroshkevich and P.D. Naselsky for useful discussions.


text:
# Drum vortons in high density QCD

## I Introduction

In the high baryon density regime it is well established that QCD behaves like a BCS superconductor where the condensate of electron Cooper pairs is replaced by a diquark condensate which has a very specific structure baillov ; colorsc ; colorsc2 ; rapp ; CFL  (see csrev  for a review of high density QCD). The presence of a condensate of quark Cooper pairs breaks certain symmetries which are respected at zero baryon density. Recently, it has been shown that a consequence of this symmetry breaking is the appearance of various topological defects ssz ; sonKaon ; fzstrings ; krstrings ; kirkdw ; superk . This leads to the exciting possibility that such objects (which do not exist in the standard model in the vacuum) may be present within the interior of compact stars where such large densities may be realized NASA .

In addition to a diquark condensate, it may be energetically favorable for a $`K^0`$ condensate to form for the physical value of the strange quark mass, $`m_s150\mathrm{MeV}m_u,m_d`$ schafer ; bedascha ; kaplredd ; bedaque . The hypercharge $`U(1)_Y`$symmetry is spontaneously broken in this case, leading to the formation of global $`U(1)_Y`$strings fzstrings . The main feature which distinguishes these strings from other types of global strings present at high density, namely $`U(1)_B`$and $`U(1)_A`$strings fzstrings , is the presence of a nonzero $`K^+`$ condensate which forms on the core of the string krstrings ; superk . This means that the electromagnetic $`U(1)_{EM}`$symmetry is spontaneously broken in the core of the string, and we will refer to them as superconducting $`K`$ strings. Analytical calculations demonstrated explicitly that $`K^+`$ condensation only occurs for a relatively large strength of the kaon condensate, parametrized by the angle $`\theta _{K^0}`$ (see below). If $`\theta <\theta _{\mathrm{crit}}\sqrt{(m_dm_u)/m_s}`$, the symmetry is restored in the core and $`K^+`$ condensation does not occur superk . We should note that this phenomenon where the symmetry is not restored in the core of the vortex was pointed out long ago by Witten witten  and has received alot of attention since in the context of cosmology and cosmic strings hindmarsh ; turner ; davis ; davisshell1 . It is interesting to note that an example of this phenomenon has been found in the context of the $`SO(5)`$ theory of high temperature superconductivity highTc , where the conventional vortices in type II superconductors might have antiferromagnetic cores. Furthermore, there has been recent experimental evidence supporting the presence of the antiferromagnetic condensate in superconducting vortices highTcexp . Therefore, the study of vortices when the symmetry is not restored in the core is not a purely academic question.

In addition to the work of Witten witten , the subsequent studies demonstrated that the presence of a condensate localized on the string may lead to the classical stability of superconducting string loops hindmarsh ; turner . The first class of superconducting string loops, called “springs,” were characterized by a nonzero spacelike current trapped on the string world sheet hindmarsh ; turner . It is well known that a loop of a normal global string with no condensate in the core is unstable in the vacuum. Upon formation the loop will shrink and eventually disappear through the emission of particles. The hope was that if there is a persistent superconducting current trapped on the string, then this current could in turn balance the string tension and prevent the loop from shrinking. Such a configuration would have a total energy $`E\mu _{\mathrm{string}}L+J^2L`$, where $`\mu _{\mathrm{string}}`$ is the string tension (or energy per unit length), $`J1/L`$ is the current, and $`L`$ is the length of the loop. Since the energy in the global string is linear in $`L`$ and the energy due to the current goes like $`1/L`$, there should exist a classically stable configuration for nonzero length $`L_{\mathrm{min}}`$. However, it was realized that springs do not exist in a large region of parameter space due to the fact that as the loop shrinks the current becomes larger, which quenches the value of the condensate on the string turner ; davisshell1 . Physically, the current acts as a positive mass squared in the Lagrangian, which decreases the size of the condensate in the core. In most cases the maximum current which can occur before the condensate is quenched is less than the current which is needed to stabilize the string loop. Therefore, though such a spring may become a stable configuration (due to the special fine tuning), it is not a typical, but rather exceptional case.

A more general type of topological defect was introduced by Davis and Shellard in davis ; davisshell2 ; davisshell3  which has two types of conserved charges trapped on the string world sheet. The first is a topological charge which had been included the analysis of springs, and the second is a Noether charge which is also trapped on the string world sheet. The difference with the previous case is that a more general solution is “stationary” but not “static;” rather it has an explicit time-dependent phase $`e^{i\omega t}`$. This factor leads to a conserved charge trapped on the core, and the configuration can be stabilized due to the conservation of the corresponding charge. The time-dependent configuration becomes the lowest energy state in the sector with a given nonzero charge. A similar idea was advocated by Coleman qball  in his construction of $`Q`$ balls, stable objects with a time-dependent wave function. This class of objects generally possess nonzero angular momentum and charge, which lead these quasiparticles to be referred to as vortons. It is also interesting to note that numerical simulations performed recently in Ref. shellardnumerical  seem to confirm the classical stability of these vortons.

It is the presence of a nonzero condensate trapped on the string core which stabilizes these topological defects, as was shown originally in a similar model in davis ; davisshell2 ; davisshell3 . It was originally demonstrated in krstrings  that there exists a nonzero condensate on the core of $`K^0`$ strings and that semitopological defects (known as springs in the cosmic string literature, as discussed above) may be present in high density QCD. However, we know from the cosmic string analysis that stable springs exist only in a very small region of parameter space turner . Since the effective Lagrangian used in turner  is very similar to the one used to describe the CFL$`+K^0`$ phase of high density we expect these results to apply in this case. Therefore, in this paper we consider the more general time dependent configurations (vortons) with $`\omega 0`$ that possess nonzero charge and current trapped on the string resulting in stable loops in a much larger region of parameter space davisshell2 . We will apply the ideas from cosmic strings davisshell2  to high density QCD, extending the work of krstrings  by constructing vortons in the CFL$`+K^0`$ phase of high density QCD. One difference between our case and other theories where vortons are present is that our vortons have a domain wall sonKaon  which stretches across the surface of the vorton like a soap bubble. This particular type of vorton with a domain wall attached was discussed recently within the linear sigma model at nonzero temperature drumvorton . We should note that we will not be addressing the issue of vorton formation in this paper. The physical picture is quite complicated: vortons form (due to angular momentum) and decay (due to weak and electromagnetic interactions). Rather, we will assume that there is some nonzero probability for the formation of such topological defects when the CFL$`+K^0`$ phase occurs. We refer the reader to formation  for a detailed study on vorton formation. Furthermore, there are many other issues that will not be addressed in the present paper. These include finite temperature effects, estimates on the lifetime of a vorton, weak interactions with the electrons present in the CFL$`+K^0`$ phase, and EM interactions with the electric and magnetic fields that are present in a neutron star. Some of these topics (along with many useful references) can be found in Chaps. 5 and 8 of the book by Vilenkin and Shellard defectsbook  where they have been discussed in the cosmological setting. We should point out that there is one new element that has not been discussed previously in the cosmic string literature, stability with respect to weak interactions. This new element, along with stability with respect to electromagnetic interactions, will not be discussed in this paper and remains to be investigated. Our contribution in this paper is the the observation that the formal construction suggested by Witten witten  and developed in many other papers davis ; davisshell2 ; davisshell3 ; defectsbook  may be realized in nature in the CFL$`+K^0`$ phase of high density QCD where the formal effective Lagrangian is exactly what people discussed in the works on cosmic vortons. We hope that the present work will stimulate future work on the many interesting problems related to vortons in the CFL$`+K^0`$ phase mentioned above. Specifically, it would be interesting to understand the vorton dynamics, the rate of formation, the interaction with the environment (such as the electric and magnetic fields), and the estimation of the lifetime.

Recently, vortons have also been constructed in the context of the Zhang’s $`SO(5)`$ theory of high temperature superconductivity so5vorton . This analogy between astrophysics or cosmology and condensed matter physics provides a unique opportunity to study the cosmological or astrophysical phenomena by doing laboratory experiments in condensed matter physics. Over the past few years several experiments have been done to test ideas drawn from cosmology (see the review papers kibble ; volovik  for further details).

This paper is organized in the following manner. In Sec. II we will briefly review the properties of the CFL$`+K^0`$ phase of high density QCD as well as the properties of the superconducting $`K`$ string as presented in superk . In Sec. III, we will show that classically stable loops of superconducting $`K`$ strings can exist. The domain walls which are attached to such vorton configurations will be discussed in Sec. IV. Section IV will also contain numerical estimates of various properties of the vortons such as their size and the Magnus force that leads to further stability. Finally, we end this paper in Sec. V with concluding remarks where we argue that the vortons can carry the angular momentum very efficiently; they need the least energy per given angular momentum.

## II The CFL+$`K^0`$ phase of high density QCD and superconducting $`K`$-strings

The ground state of the high density phase of QCD is characterized by a diquark condensate colorsc ; colorsc2 ; CFL ; rapp  analogous to the condensate of electron Cooper pairs present in a conventional superconductor. This phase of QCD is

referred to as a color superconducting phase and the form of the condensate for $`N_c=N_f=3`$ (CFL phase) has a very specific structure given by CFL

$`q_{L\alpha }^{ia}q_{L\beta }^{jb}^{}`$ $``$ $`ϵ_{\alpha \beta \gamma }ϵ^{ij}ϵ^{abc}X_c^\gamma ,`$
$`q_{R\alpha }^{ia}q_{R\beta }^{jb}^{}`$ $``$ $`ϵ_{\alpha \beta \gamma }ϵ^{ij}ϵ^{abc}Y_c^\gamma ,`$ (1)
where $`L`$ and $`R`$ represent left and right handed quarks, $`\alpha `$, $`\beta `$, and $`\gamma `$ are the flavor indices, $`i`$ and $`j`$ are spinor indices, $`a`$, $`b`$, and $`c`$ are color indices, and $`X_c^\gamma `$ and $`Y_c^\gamma `$ are complex color-flavor matrices describing the Goldstone bosons. In order to describe the light degrees of freedom in a gauge invariant way, one introduces the color singlet field $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }_\gamma ^\beta =XY^{}=\underset{c}{}X_c^\beta Y_\gamma ^c,$$
(2)
One can describe the Goldstone bosons contained in the field $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ using the following effective Lagrangian bedascha ; bedaque ; schafer ; kaplredd :

$`_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{f_\pi ^2}{4}}\mathrm{Tr}\left[_0\mathrm{\Sigma }_0\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}v^2_i\mathrm{\Sigma }_i\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}\right],`$ (3)
$`+`$ $`2A[det(M)\mathrm{Tr}(M^1\mathrm{\Sigma }+h.c.],`$
$`_0\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ $`=`$ $`_0\mathrm{\Sigma }+i\left({\displaystyle \frac{MM^{}}{2p_f}}\right)\mathrm{\Sigma }i\mathrm{\Sigma }\left({\displaystyle \frac{M^{}M}{2p_f}}\right),`$
where the matrix $`\mathrm{\Sigma }=\mathrm{exp}(i\pi ^a\lambda ^a/f_\pi )`$ describes the octet of Goldstone bosons with the $`SU(3)`$ generators $`\lambda ^a`$ normalized as $`\mathrm{Tr}(\lambda ^a\lambda ^b)=2\delta ^{ab}`$. The quark mass matrix in Eq. (3) is given by $`M=\mathrm{diag}(m_u,m_d,m_s)`$. The constants $`f_\pi ,v`$ and $`A`$ have been calculated in the leading perturbative approximation and are given by ss ; bbs ; manuel ; schafermass

$$f_\pi ^2=\frac{218\mathrm{ln}2}{18}\frac{\mu ^2}{2\pi ^2},v^2=\frac{1}{3},A=\frac{3\mathrm{\Delta }^2}{4\pi ^2}.$$
(4)
In bedascha ; bedaque ; schafer ; kaplredd  it was noticed that for a physical value of the strange quark mass, $`m_s>60`$ MeV, $`K^0`$ condensation would occur and that $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_o=\mathrm{diag}(1,1,1)`$ would no longer represent the true ground state of the CFL phase bedascha . Instead, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_o`$ would be rotated in some different direction in flavor space. The instability of the ground state originates from the addition of the covariant derivative in Eq. (3). In the following we will consider the physical case where isospin symmetry is not exact $`(m_d>m_u)`$ and overall electric charge neutrality, such that $`K^0`$ condensation occurs. The appropriate expression for $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_o`$ describing the $`K^0`$ condensed ground state can be parametrized as

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }_o=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1& 0& 0\\ 0& \mathrm{cos}\theta _{K^0}& \mathrm{sin}\theta _{K^0}e^{i\phi }\\ 0& \mathrm{sin}\theta _{K^0}e^{i\phi }& \mathrm{cos}\theta _{K^0}\end{array}\right),$$
(5)
where $`\phi `$ describes the corresponding Goldstone mode and $`\theta _{K^0}`$ describes the strength of the kaon condensation with bedascha

$`\mathrm{cos}\theta _{K^0}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{m_0^2}{\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}^2}},a={\displaystyle \frac{4A}{f_\pi ^2}}={\displaystyle \frac{3\mathrm{\Delta }^2}{\pi ^2f_\pi ^2}},`$ (6)
$`m_0^2`$ $``$ $`am_u(m_d+m_s),\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}{\displaystyle \frac{m_s^2}{2p_F}}.`$
In order for kaon condensation $`(\theta _{K^0}0)`$ to occur, we must have $`m_0<\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}`$. This leads to the breaking of the hypercharge $`U(1)_Y`$symmetry. As discussed in bedascha , the lightest degrees of freedom in the CFL$`+K^0`$ phase are the $`K^0`$ and $`K^+`$ mesons.

Before we proceed, let us make the following remark regarding the description of Goldstone particles and topological defects based on the effective Lagrangian approach. To formulate the problem in a more specific way, let us remind the reader that, in general, the effective Lagrangian describing the Goldstone modes can be represented in many different forms as long as the symmetry properties are respected. The results for the amplitudes describing the interaction of the Goldstone particles do not depend on a specific representation used. A well-known example of this fact is the possibility of describing the $`\pi `$ meson properties by using a linear $`\sigma `$ model as well as a nonlinear $`\sigma `$ model (and many other models which satisfy the relevant symmetry breaking pattern). The results remain the same if one discusses the local properties of the theory (such as the $`\pi \pi `$ scattering length) when the $`\pi `$ meson is considered as a small quantum fluctuation rather than a large background field. It may not be the case when $`\pi `$ represents a large background field in which case some numerical difference between different representations of the effective Lagrangian may occur. Roughly speaking, the source of the difference is an inequality $`\pi (x)\mathrm{sin}\pi (x)`$ for large global background fields such as a string solution which is the subject of this letter. Therefore, in what follows we assume that the qualitative effects which follow from the low-energy Lagrangian remain untouched when a different representation for the fields or interactions is used as long as the symmetry properties are respected. Our assumption is based on the experience superk  when two different representations for $`K`$ fields lead to the similar numerical results.

With this remark in mind, we shall use the effective Lagrangian by expanding the full effective Lagrangian given by Eq. (3) to fourth order in the fields $`K^0,K^+`$. We expect that this Lagrangian captures the essential physics of the $`K^0`$ and $`K^+`$ mesons because it respects all relevant symmetries:

$``$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{6f_\pi ^2}}((\overline{K}^0\stackrel{}{D_\mu }K^0)^2+(\overline{K}^+\stackrel{}{D_\mu }K^+)^2+(\overline{K}^+\stackrel{}{D_\mu }K^0)(\overline{K}^0\stackrel{}{D_\mu }K^+)+(\overline{K}^+\stackrel{}{D_\mu }K^+)(\overline{K}^0\stackrel{}{D_\mu }K^0))`$ (7)
$`+`$ $`|D_\mu K^0|^2+|D_\mu K^+|^2m_0^2|K^0|^2m_+^2|K^+|^2+{\displaystyle \frac{m_0^2}{6f_\pi ^2}}|K^0|^4+{\displaystyle \frac{m_+^2}{6f_\pi ^2}}|K^+|^4+{\displaystyle \frac{(m_0^2+m_+^2)}{6f_\pi ^2}}|K^0|^2|K^+|^2`$
where the covariant derivative is defined by

$`D_0`$ $``$ $`(_0i\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}),D_iv_i,`$
$`\overline{\varphi }_1\stackrel{}{D_\mu }\varphi _2`$ $``$ $`\overline{\varphi }_1(D_\mu \varphi _2)(\overline{D_\mu \varphi _1})\varphi _2,`$ (8)
$`(\overline{D_0\varphi _1})`$ $``$ $`(_0+i\mu _{\mathrm{eff}})\overline{\varphi }_1,(\overline{D_i\varphi _1})v_i\overline{\varphi }_1`$
and the masses are given by

$$m_0^2=am_u(m_s+m_d),m_+^2=am_d(m_s+m_u).$$
(9)
It is necessary to keep the fourth order terms involving derivatives such as $`_0K^+,_iK^+`$ in Eq. (7) for a discussion of vortons (the reason for this will become apparent in the next section). The effective Lagrangian given in Eq. (7) will be used throughout the rest of this paper.

If one neglects the fourth order terms with derivatives $`\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}0`$ only, the Lagrangian (7) reduces to one discussed in superk  expressed in terms of the single complex doublet $`\mathrm{\Phi }=(K^+,K^0)`$:

$``$ $`=`$ $`|_0\mathrm{\Phi }|^2v^2|_i\mathrm{\Phi }|^2`$ (10)
$``$ $`\lambda \left(|\mathrm{\Phi }|^2{\displaystyle \frac{\eta ^2}{2}}\right)^2\delta m^2\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\tau _3\mathrm{\Phi },`$
where $`\tau _3`$ is the third Pauli matrix and the various parameters are given by:

$`\lambda `$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}^2m_0^2}{6f_\pi ^2}},\lambda \eta ^2=\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}^2{\displaystyle \frac{m_0^2+m_+^2}{2}},`$
$`\delta m^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{m_+^2m_0^2}{2}}={\displaystyle \frac{a}{2}}m_s(m_dm_u)`$ (11)
As we know, the Lagrangian (10) admits superconducting string solutions, which is not immediately obvious when $``$ is written in the representation (7). In everything that follows we will take $`m_um_dm_s`$ so that the $`SU(2)`$ isospin symmetry is broken. Given this, the effective Lagrangian (7) is invariant under the $`U(1)_Y\times U(1)_{EM}`$ symmetry group, which correspond to independent phase rotations for the $`K^0`$ and $`K^+`$ Goldstone bosons. When the explicit symmetry breaking terms are zero, the symmetry becomes $`SU(2)\times U(1)`$.

We will briefly review the basic characteristics of the superconducting $`K`$ strings as presented in superk . If we consider the case where $`\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}>m_0`$, then the $`K^0`$ field in Eq. (7) acquires a negative mass squared and this signals the formation of a nonzero $`K^0`$ condensate which spontaneously breaks the $`U(1)_Y`$symmetry. The breaking of this $`U(1)_Y`$symmetry leads to the existence of classically stable nontrivial solutions to the time independent equations of motion (strings). This particular type of topological defect is characterized by the variation of the phase of the field $`K^0`$ from $`0`$ to $`2\pi `$ around a point where the vacuum expectation value of $`K^0`$ vanishes. Outside of this region where the field approaches its vacuum expectation value over a distance scale $`1/m`$, where $`m`$ is the mass scale associated with $`K^0`$. In addition to the formation of $`K^0`$ strings, in a certain range of parameter space it is energetically favorable for $`K^+`$ condensation to occur at the center of the string as discussed in superk , which leads to strings that are superconducting. The superconducting strings can be described using the following time independent ansatz:

$`K_{\mathrm{string}}^0(r,\varphi )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\eta ^{}}{\sqrt{2}}}f(r)e^{i\varphi },`$ (12)
$`K_{\mathrm{cond}}^+(r)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\sigma }{\sqrt{2}}}g(r),`$ (13)
where $`\eta ^{}/\sqrt{2}=\sqrt{(\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}^2m_0^2)/(2\lambda _0)}`$ is different from the vacuum expectation value for the field $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\eta /\sqrt{2}`$ \[see Eq. (10)\] by the size of the symmetry breaking term $`\delta m^2`$, $`\varphi `$ is the azimuthal angle in cylindrical coordinates, $`\sigma /\sqrt{2}`$ is the value of the condensate on the string core, and $`f(r)`$ and $`g(r)`$ are solutions to the equations of motion which obey the boundary conditions $`f(0)=0,f(\mathrm{})=1`$ and $`g^{}(0)=0,g(\mathrm{})=0`$. This configuration is the one described above where the field $`K^0`$ vanishes at the center of the string and goes to its vacuum expectation value at $`\mathrm{}`$, with a nonzero $`K^+`$ condensate that exists only on the string core. The functions $`f(r)`$ and $`g(r)`$ can be approximated by the following functions which obey the appropriate boundary conditions:

$`f(r)`$ $``$ $`(1e^{\beta r}),`$ (14)
$`g(r)`$ $``$ $`e^{\kappa r}(1+\kappa r),`$
where $`\beta \sqrt{\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}^2m_0^2}`$ and $`\kappa \delta m`$ are the approximate inverse widths of the string core and condensate respectively. In addition, the value of the condensate at the center of the string can be estimated by substituting the approximate solutions (12) and (14) into the Hamiltonian and minimizing the energy with respect to the parameter $`\sigma `$.

## III $`K`$ Vortons

Now that we have reviewed the basic ideas behind superconducting $`K`$ strings, we will proceed to show that superconducting string loops can exist as classically stable objects which are supported by the presence of two conserved charges which become trapped on the string world sheet, called vortons. These quasiparticles have been widely discussed in the context of cosmology witten ; hindmarsh ; turner ; davis ; davisshell1 ; davisshell2 ; davisshell3 ; drumvorton . In our case, high density QCD, we have the benefit of having an effective Lagrangian that contains parameters that have already been calculated.

### III.1 Springs vs. vortons

Shortly after the pioneering paper of Witten witten  on superconconducting strings, there was a lot of interest in the idea that superconducting strings loops could be supported by the presence of persistent currents hindmarsh ; turner ; davisshell1 . We will consider a large loop of string of radius $`R\delta `$, where $`\delta `$ is the string thickness, so that curvature effects can be neglected. The $`z`$ axis is defined along the length of the string, varying from $`0`$ to $`L=2\pi R`$ as one goes around the loop. The superconducting current can be described by including a phase in the $`K^+`$ field, $`K^+K^+e^{ikz}`$. Following witten , we define a charge $`N`$ which is topologically conserved:

$$N=_C\frac{dz}{2\pi }\left(\frac{d\alpha }{dz}\right)=kR,$$
(15)
where the path $`C`$ is defined along the string loop and $`\alpha =kz`$ is the phase. Since the field must be single valued as one goes around the loop, $`k`$ can be interpreted as a winding number density $`k=N/R`$, with $`N`$ constrained to be an integer. If $`N`$ is an integer then it cannot change continuously. This means that there is a persistent current associated with the conserved quantity $`N`$. The only way that $`N`$ can unwind is through a tunneling process whereby the condensate is quenched to down to zero on the string, allowing the winding number to decrease from $`N`$ to $`N1`$ vilenkin .

The energy of this configuration has the form

$`E`$ $`=`$ $`\mu _{\mathrm{string}}L+v^2k^2L\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ (16)
$`=`$ $`\mu _{\mathrm{string}}L+(2\pi )^2v^2{\displaystyle \frac{N^2}{L}}\mathrm{\Sigma }`$
where $`\mu _{\mathrm{string}}`$ is the $`K^0`$ string tension, winding number density $`k`$ is expressed in terms of the conserved charge $`N`$, Eq. (15), and the quantity $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is defined as the integral of $`|K^+|^2`$ over the string cross section<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1The quantity $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ should not be confused with the matrix $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\gamma ^\beta `$ in the last section that describes the octet of Goldstone bosons.

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }_\times d^2r|K^+|^2.$$
(17)
This energy has a nontrivial minimum with respect to the loop length $`L`$, thus it was originally believed that springs are stable semitopological objects.

However, later on it was realized that the spring cannot carry arbitrarily large currents or winding number densities $`k=N/R`$. The addition of the $`z`$-dependent phase contributes an effective positive mass-squared term to the Lagrangian:

$$\delta =v^2|_zK^+|^2=v^2k^2|K^+|^2.$$
(18)
As the loop with a conserved and nonzero charge $`N`$ (defined at the moment of loop formation) shrinks to reach the energetically favorable length, $`k`$ increases, and the effective mass squared of $`K^+`$ on the string core also increases hence decreasing the strength of the condensate inside the core. Eventually it may be no longer energetically favorable for $`K^+`$ to condense inside the string core, and superconductivity on the string will be destroyed with $`|K^+|`$ quenched down to 0 on the string. In most models discussed in the context of cosmology turner ; davisshell1 , quenching occurs before the spring reaches its equilibrium length and hence no stable configurations exist.

However, this is not the end of the story. As Davis and Shellard originally pointed out there exists a more general type of topological defect which is stabilized by angular momentum davis ; davisshell2 ; davisshell3 . These types of objects are referred to as vortons and have been widely discussed in the context of cosmology and cosmic strings (see defectsbook  for a review and shellardnumerical ; shellard2002  for recent work). As well as the topological charge present in the spring configurations discussed previously, vortons also have a conserved Noether charge on the string core. The amount of charge present on the string is proportional to the parameter $`\omega `$ in the time dependent phase $`K^+K^+e^{i\omega t}`$. The addition of this phase leads to a nonzero Noether charge given by

$$Q=d^3rj^0=\omega L\mathrm{\Sigma }.$$
(19)
The addition of time dependent phase also contributes to the effective mass squared of the $`K^+`$ field as in Eq. (18), only having the opposite sign:

$$\delta =|_0K^+|^2=+\omega ^2|K^+|^2.$$
(20)
Yet $`\omega `$ enters the energy with the same sign as $`k`$:

$`E`$ $`=`$ $`\mu _{\mathrm{string}}L+(v^2k^2+\omega ^2)\mathrm{\Sigma }L`$ (21)
$`=`$ $`\mu _{\mathrm{string}}L+(2\pi )^2v^2{\displaystyle \frac{N^2}{L}}\mathrm{\Sigma }+{\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{\mathrm{\Sigma }L}},`$
and therefore the energy still has a nontrivial minimum with respect to the loop length.

Thus, from Eq. (20) we see that a nonzero $`\omega `$ will counteract the quenching effect of $`k`$, increasing the value of the condensate on the string (antiquenching) as the string loop shrinks davisshell2 . As discussed in davisshell2 , when the loop shrinks $`\omega /(vk)`$ tends to 1, meaning that at equilibrium length the quenching and antiquenching effects approximately cancel each other out, leaving a stable vorton behind.

Note that the results discussed above do not rely on whether the condensate on the string is electrically charged. As Davis and Shellard originally pointed out davisshell2 , the stability of the vortons is purely mechanical and not electromagnetic in origin. The reason is simple, a vorton with nonzero $`N`$ and $`Q`$ has nonzero angular momentum. The fact that the vorton is spinning and angular momentum is conserved leads to the classical stability of these objects. Therefore, the addition of electromagnetic effects should not change the qualitative behavior that will be discussed below, and therefore we neglect the electromagnetic contribution in the present work.

### III.2 Vortons in the CFL$`+K^0`$ phase of high density QCD

In order to describe a vorton in our case, we will add a time and $`z`$ dependent phase in the standard form to the string-condensate solution (12) presented in the previous section:

$`K^0`$ $`=`$ $`K_{\mathrm{string}}^0(r,\varphi ),`$ (22)
$`K^+`$ $`=`$ $`K_{\mathrm{cond}}^+(r)e^{i\omega t+ikz}.`$
Recall that $`z`$ is defined as the coordinate which runs along the length of the string and varies from $`0`$ to $`L=2\pi R`$ as one goes around a loop of radius $`R`$. The loop is assumed to be large, $`R\delta `$ ($`\delta `$ is the typical string thickness), so that we can neglect curvature effects and consider a straight string.

We can substitute these expressions into the original Lagrangian (7) and obtain the Lagrangian describing the dynamics in the two transverse dimensions:

$``$ $`=`$ $`v^2|_iK^0|^2v^2|_iK^+|^2+M_0^2|K^0|^2+M_+^2|K^+|^2`$ (23)
$``$ $`\lambda _0|K^0|^4\lambda _+|K^+|^4\zeta |K^0|^2|K^+|^2`$
where $`i`$ runs over $`x,y`$ and

$$\stackrel{~}{w}=\omega +\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}$$
(24)
is the effective frequency of $`K^+`$ field, and the parameters of Eq. (23) are given by

$`M_0^2`$ $`=`$ $`\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}^2m_0^2,M_+^2=\stackrel{~}{w}^2v^2k^2m_+^2`$
$`\lambda _0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}^2m_0^2}{6f_\pi ^2}},\lambda _+={\displaystyle \frac{4(\stackrel{~}{w}^2v^2k^2)m_+^2}{6f_\pi ^2}},`$
$`\zeta `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(\stackrel{~}{w}+\mu _{\mathrm{eff}})^2+4\stackrel{~}{w}\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}v^2n^2m_+^2m_0^2}{6f_\pi ^2}}.`$
In simplifying Eqs. (7) to (23) we have ignored all fourth order terms in fields which have derivatives in $`x,y`$ directions since these variations change the profile (as a function of $`r`$) of the string itself, but do not influence the effects that are the main subject of this work – the formation of a closed loop of the string, a vorton.

It is important to note that fourth order couplings in Eq. (23) are strongly dependent on $`\omega `$ and $`k`$. This property is what distinguishes our model from the models considered in the context of cosmology davisshell1 . However, the main feature of the time-dependent ansatz (22) which leads to the existence of stable vortons does not depend on these small differences; it remains the same as discussed earlier in different models in the cosmological context davisshell1 . This is because the stability of vortons is not related to the specific properties of the Lagrangian, but rather it is guaranteed by the conservation of topological charge (15) and the Noether charge:

$`Q`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle d^3rj^0}`$ (25)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{L}{2}}{\displaystyle d^2r|K^+|^2\left[2(\omega +\mu _{\mathrm{eff}})\right]}`$
$``$ $`L\stackrel{~}{w}\mathrm{\Sigma }`$
which reduces to the expression (19) with the replacement $`\omega \stackrel{~}{w}=\omega +\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}`$. In the above expression we have omitted higher order terms<sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2As we have already mentioned these higher order terms in the effective description lead, in general, to some difference in the definition of the fields. In particular, we could define the fundamental field $`K^+`$ as the phase of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\gamma ^\beta `$ (2) or we could define $`K^+`$ as $`\mathrm{sin}(K^+)`$ etc. We do not expect that this ambiguity can change the qualitative results which follow. in derivatives and/or fields to simplify the expression for the charge $`Q`$ (25). The presence of time dependence leads to a configuration with nonzero conserved Noether charge. Such an object, which is stable due to the conservation of a Noether charge, is called a $`Q`$ ball qball . Vortons have been referred to as semitopological defects davis  due to the fact that they are partially stabilized by topology and partially stabilized by the presence of a conserved Noether charge, similar to $`Q`$ balls.

Thus $`K^+/K^0`$ string loops in our model are always charged and this charge has to be taken into account when studying their dynamics. In particular, even if the $`K^+`$ field originally has no explicit time dependence, i.e., $`\omega =0`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{w}=\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}`$, explicit time dependence will appear in the process of loop shrinking to preserve the Noether charge that was present at the moment of formation.

Now we proceed to study what values $`\stackrel{~}{w}`$ and $`k`$ can assume. These values are clearly not arbitrary since the masses and the couplings in the Lagrangian (23) depend on $`\stackrel{~}{w}`$ and $`k`$. Thus, for the vorton to exist, $`\stackrel{~}{w}`$ and $`k`$ must not destroy the $`K^+`$ condensate of the superconducting $`K^0/K^+`$ string. The constraints on the parameters in Eq. (23) which guarantee superconductivity have been discussed in detail by turner  and can be stated as follows:

1. It must be energetically favorable for $`K^0`$ to condense in the vacuum, i.e. in vacuum $`K^00`$. This guarantees that the $`U(1)_Y`$ symmetry is spontaneously broken and a $`K^0`$ string can form.
2. It must be energetically unfavorable for $`K^+`$ to condense in the vacuum, i.e. in vacuum $`K^+=0`$. This guarantees that $`K^+`$ does not condense outside the string and is bound to the string core. This constraint requires that the effective mass squared of $`K^+`$ must be positive off of the string core.
3. It must be energetically favorable for $`K^+`$ condensation to occur on the string core. A necessary condition for this is that the effective mass squared of $`K^+`$ must be negative inside the string core.
4. A sufficient condition for 3. is that total energy associated with $`K^+`$ condensation inside the string core must be negative.

The first 3 constraints can be summarized in terms of the parameters (III.2) as

$`1`$ . $`{\displaystyle \frac{M_0^4}{\lambda _0}}>{\displaystyle \frac{M_+^4}{\lambda _+}}`$
$`2`$ . $`{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta }{2\lambda _0}}M_0^2>M_+^2`$ (26)
$`3`$ . $`M_+^2>0`$
Before we make numerical estimates for the parameters $`\omega ,k`$, notice that the approximate degeneracy between $`K^0`$ and $`K^+`$ implies that $`M_+^2M_0^2`$ and therefore

$$\stackrel{~}{w}^2v^2k^2m_+^2\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}^2m_0^2,$$
(27)
which suggests that the typical scale for $`\omega `$ and $`k`$ is the scale $`\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}m_s^2/(2\mu )30`$ MeV. Our variational calculations \[similar to the one performed in superk  using the ansatz (14)\] used to obtain the allowed values of $`\omega `$ and $`k`$ support this estimate. When values of $`\stackrel{~}{w}`$ and $`k`$ satisfying all 4 conditions are plotted we see that superconducting strings exist for $`\stackrel{~}{w}`$ from 25 to 45 MeV.

The upper limit on $`\stackrel{~}{w}`$ has to do with the fact that for large values of $`\stackrel{~}{w}`$ the parameters $`M_+^2`$ and $`\zeta `$ break the degeneracy between the $`K^0`$ and $`K^+`$ fields. Moreover, the increase of $`M_+^2`$ and $`\zeta `$ with $`\stackrel{~}{w}`$ cannot be cancelled out simultaneously by an increase in $`k`$. Thus for large $`\stackrel{~}{w}`$, $`\zeta `$ becomes too large and the energy associated with a $`K^+`$ condensate in the core is no longer negative.

The total energy of this field configuration can also be computed from Eq. (7). The energy is given as usual by the integral of the $`T^{00}`$ component of the energy-momentum tensor:

$`E`$ $`=`$ $`L{\displaystyle }d^2r(v^2|_iK^0|^2+v^2|_iK^+|^2M_0^2|K^0|^2`$
$``$ $`M_+^2|K^+|^2+\lambda _0|K^0|^4+\lambda _+^{}|K^+|^4+\zeta ^{}|K^0|^2|K^+|^2)`$
where the coefficients are given by

$`M_0^2`$ $`=`$ $`\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}^2m_0^2,\lambda _0={\displaystyle \frac{4\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}^2m_0^2}{6f_\pi ^2}},`$
$`M_+^2`$ $`=`$ $`\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}^2\omega ^2v^2k^2m_+^2,`$
$`\lambda _+^{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4(\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}^2\omega ^2v^2k^2)m_+^2}{6f_\pi ^2}},`$ (29)
$`\zeta ^{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{8\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}^2\omega ^2v^2k^2m_+^2m_0^2}{6f_\pi ^2}}.`$
In the case when $`\omega =k=0`$ one reproduces the energy for the string obtained from Eq. (10). The part of the energy (III.2) associated with a single $`K^0`$ vortex of length $`L`$ without a condensate in the center \[terms involving only $`K^0`$ in Eq. (III.2)\] is given to logarithmic accuracy as

$$E_{K^0}=2\pi R(\pi \eta ^2v^2\mathrm{ln}(\beta \mathrm{\Lambda })),\eta ^2=\frac{\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}^2m_0^2}{\lambda _0}$$
(30)
where $`\beta `$ is the inverse width of the string’s core introduced in the ansatz (14) and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is a long distance cutoff which is introduced in order to control the logarithmic divergence which appears due to the large distance variation of the phase. The cutoff is typically the distance between strings or the radius of curvature, and since we will be considering loops of strings in this paper, the natural correspondence to make is $`\mathrm{\Lambda }R`$. The additional energy of the $`K^+`$ condensate in the core of the string (due to the nonzero values of $`\omega ,k`$) has the leading term behavior:

$`E_{K^+}`$ $``$ $`L(\omega ^2+v^2k^2)\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ (31)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{2\pi R\mathrm{\Sigma }}}+{\displaystyle \frac{2\pi v^2N^2\mathrm{\Sigma }}{R}},`$
where we expressed $`\omega ,k`$ in terms of the conserved charges $`Q,N`$. Note this is only an approximate expression for the energy of the condensate and that we have neglected various higher order terms in $`K^0,K^+`$ in Eq. (III.2) as well as in the definition of the charge $`Q`$ (25). As we mentioned earlier, these higher order terms reflect the ambiguity in the description of solitons using the effective Lagrangian approach when $`K^0/f_\pi 1`$. These terms effectively play a role by determining the magnitude of the $`K^+`$ condensate in the core represented by the parameter $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ in our calculations. Once the presence of a $`K^+`$ condensate is established, these terms can change some numerical results, but we do not expect that these terms can change our qualitative results because the existence of vortons is based on conservation of charges rather than on the specific properties of the field representations used in this paper. In other words, once the parameters are such that a $`K^+`$ condensate forms in the core of the vortex, the vorton can also form. We use the simplest possible expressions for the relevant parameters in order to illuminate the fact that stability occurs for a nonzero value of $`R`$. A simple intuitive explanation for the $`1/R`$ dependence in Eq. (31) is as follows. If we consider a fixed value of $`Q`$, shrinking the loop will result in an increased $`K^+`$ density on the loop. This in turn increases the energy, which eventually cancels the string tension. In the same manner, the momentum increases for a fixed value of $`N`$ for decreasing $`R`$, which also counteracts the string tension. Thus, as discussed before, the total energy $`E=E_{K^0}+E_{K^+}`$ has a minimum with respect to $`R`$ at which a stable vorton exists. With our parameters it happens at $`R_0`$ given by

$$(2\pi R_0)^2\frac{Q^2+(2\pi )^2v^2N^2\mathrm{\Sigma }^2}{\pi \mathrm{\Sigma }\eta ^2v^2\mathrm{ln}(\beta \mathrm{\Lambda })}.$$
(32)
At this point in our discussion the size of vortons is not constrained in any way; it could be arbitrarily large, similar to the cosmic string vortons. However, when an explicit symmetry breaking term is taken into account, the vorton size can not be arbitrarily large. Rather, the size will be constrained by the strength of an additional force due to the domain wall attached to the string (see the next section).

One should emphasize at this point that the source of this stability is purely mechanical, and not related to the electromagnetic interactions. This is in contrast with the suggestion made in krstrings , where it was mentioned that it may be possible to have classically stable $`K`$ vortons in high density QCD due to a persistent superconducting current trapped on the string. As we have demonstrated above, the source of the vorton stability has a quite different origin. We expect that the maximum electromagnetic current which can occur in the system (before the $`K^+`$ condensate is quenched) is less than the current which is required to stabilize the string loop, as it was demonstrated to happen in most cases turner  and davisshell1  where a similar problem was previously analyzed. Since it was demonstrated in turner  that stable springs are only possible in very limited region of parameter space for similar $`\varphi ^4`$-type models, we do not want to repeat these calculations in the present work because our effective Lagrangian is essentially the same and we expect that these results would apply.

The stability of the vortons can also be demonstrated explicitly in a different way. As Davis and Shellard originally pointed out, the source of this stability is purely mechanical. The presence of time dependence in Eq. (22) allows the vortons to spin and carry angular momentum. The conservation of angular momentum is reflected by the conservation of the topological and Noether charges $`Q`$ and $`N`$, respectively. We can easily calculate the approximate angular momentum carried by a vorton from the energy-momentum tensor obtained from Eq. (7)

$$M^{ij}=d^3r(x^iT^{0j}x^jT^{0i}).$$
(33)
The angular momentum carried by a single vorton (22) is approximately

$$M2\pi R^2k\stackrel{~}{w}\mathrm{\Sigma }.$$
(34)
The direction of $`M`$ is perpendicular to the surface formed by the vorton. From the expression (34) for the angular momentum, we can see that that $`MNQ`$ is proportional to the classically conserved quantities $`N,Q`$. The presence of nonzero $`\omega `$ is the only way to have a nonzero component of the energy-momentum tensor $`T^{0i}_0K^+`$, which gives a nonzero contribution to the angular momentum tensor (33). We refer the reader to magnus  for further details on the relationship between nonrelativistic vortices and relativistic strings in a nontrivial background. In this paper magnus  it was demonstrated that a correspondence can be made between the two systems when the relativistic strings are put into a medium, resulting in nontrivial time dependence. This nontrivial time dependence yields a nonzero magnitude for $`T^{0i}`$ and the angular momentum $`M^{ij}`$ correspondingly. Therefore, nonzero charge $`Q`$ trapped on the vortex implies that a vorton carries nonzero angular momentum.

Although our $`K^+`$ field is electrically charged, we have not mentioned or included interactions with electromagnetic gauge field. We expect that the quantitative results discussed above would be slightly different upon including a gauge field, with the qualitative behavior remaining unchanged. Qualitatively, we expect that the electromagnetic interactions would enhance that stability of the vortons because the electromagnetic charge of the $`K^+`$ condensate trapped in the core gives an additional contribution $`Q^2/R`$ and prevents the vortons from shrinking.

## IV Domain walls, drum vortons, and Magnus forces

In the previous section we have demonstrated that loops of superconducting $`K`$ strings, called vortons, can exist as classically stable objects due to the fact that charges and currents are trapped on the string core. We will now include a brief discussion of other effects that are important in order to have a correct description of vortons in the CFL$`+K^0`$ phase of high density QCD.

Up to this point, we have not included terms in the Lagrangian that explicitly break the $`U(1)_Y`$ symmetry. If the weak interactions are taken into account, there is a small piece which must be added to the effective Lagrangian (7) which explicitly breaks the $`U(1)_Y`$symmetry sonKaon :

$$\delta =V(\phi )=f_\pi ^2m_{\mathrm{dw}}^2\mathrm{cos}\phi ,$$
(35)
where $`\phi `$ is the phase of $`K^0`$ and $`m_{\mathrm{dw}}`$ will be given below. As described in full detail in sonKaon , this leads to the formation of domain walls, with the phase $`\phi `$ varying from $`0`$ to $`2\pi `$ across the wall (the same vacuum state exists on both sides of the wall). Consequently, this leads a domain wall being attached to every string. Therefore, as one encircles the string at large distances from the core the phase variation from $`0`$ to $`2\pi `$ is not uniform but is sandwiched inside a domain wall of width $`m_{\mathrm{dw}}^1`$, with $`m_{\mathrm{dw}}^1`$ set by the coefficient of the explicit symmetry breaking term. We will simply state the results of Son sonKaon  here without going into details. The domain wall tension $`\alpha _{\mathrm{dw}}`$ (energy per unit area) is given by

$`\alpha _{\mathrm{dw}}`$ $`=`$ $`8vf_\pi ^2m_{\mathrm{dw}},`$ (36)
$`m_{\mathrm{dw}}^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{162\sqrt{2}\pi }{218\mathrm{ln}2}}{\displaystyle \frac{G_F}{\alpha _s}}\mathrm{cos}\theta _c\mathrm{sin}\theta _cm_um_s\mathrm{\Delta }^2,`$
where $`G_F`$ is the Fermi constant, $`\theta _c`$ is the Cabibbo angle, and $`\alpha _s`$ is the strong coupling constant. The inverse mass $`m_{\mathrm{dw}}^1`$ is approximately the width of the domain wall. Son calculates $`m_{\mathrm{dw}}50`$ keV for physical values of the relevant parameters sonKaon . If the size of the domain wall is greater than the thickness, $`Rm_{\mathrm{dw}}^1`$ for a circular domain wall of radius $`R`$, then the total energy of this configuration can be approximated as

$$E_{\mathrm{dw}}\pi R^2\alpha _{\mathrm{dw}}.$$
(37)
Since every string must be attached to a domain wall, the vortons discussed in the previous section will have a domain wall stretched across their surface like a soap bubble. Similar configurations have been recently studied in the linear sigma model at nonzero temperature drumvorton  and have been referred to as “drum vortons.” In the case that there is no domain wall attached to the vorton, the minimization of the energy with respect to $`R`$ leads to the result that $`k=N/R=\mathrm{const}`$ for the chiral case $`vk=\omega `$, independent of $`R`$. Therefore, the vorton could have an arbitrarily large size. The presence of the domain wall will lead to an upper bound on the radius of these vortons. Now that we have an approximate expression to the domain wall contribution to the energy, we can add Eqs. (30), (31), and (37) to arrive at an expression for the total energy of a circular drum vorton of radius $`R`$ which is valid for $`Rm_{\mathrm{dw}}^1`$:

$`E`$ $`=`$ $`E_{K^0}+E_{K^+}+E_{\mathrm{dw}}`$ (38)
$`=`$ $`2\pi ^2R\eta ^2v^2\mathrm{ln}(\beta R)+\pi R^2\alpha _{\mathrm{dw}}`$
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{R}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{2\pi \mathrm{\Sigma }}}+2\pi v^2N^2\mathrm{\Sigma }\right).`$
This expression must be minimized with respect to $`R`$ to find the size of these classically stable objects. This problem is quite complicated because of a number simplifications we have made in Eq. (38). In particular, Eq. (37) is not literally valid for relatively small $`R_0m_{\mathrm{dw}}^1`$ when equilibrium is reached (see below).

We will now estimate the typical size of a vorton. We start with relatively small charges $`Q,N`$ (and correspondingly $`R`$) when the domain wall contribution can be neglected, and the equilibrium is reached at $`R_0`$ given by Eq. (32). We slowly increase $`Q`$ and $`N`$ such that domain wall contribution becomes of the same order of magnitude as the string-related terms. This happens when $`Q,Nf_\pi /m_{\mathrm{dw}}1`$. The size of the configuration at this point $`R_0Q/f_\pi m_{\mathrm{dw}}^1`$ reaches the magnitude of the domain wall width, i.e. $`(50\mathrm{keV})^1`$ which is much larger than any QCD-related scale of the problem. If one increases $`Q`$ and $`N`$ further, the first term in Eq. (38) becomes irrelevant, and equilibrium is achieved when $`R_0^3Q^2/(\mathrm{\Sigma }\alpha _{\mathrm{dw}})`$ at which point the energy of configuration $`EQ^{4/3}\alpha ^{1/3}`$ grows too fast with $`Q`$. Such a large configuration will decay to smaller vortons by preserving the charges $`Q`$ and $`N`$, decreasing the total energy. Therefore, one expects that the maximum vorton size is related to the weak interactions which set the typical vorton scale to be $`m_{\mathrm{dw}}^1`$.

There exists an additional force which may further stabilize the vortons. This is the Magnus force, which arises when a global string moves through a Lorentz-noninvariant fluid. We naturally have such a background, since we are working at nonzero chemical potential, which breaks Lorentz invariance. The corresponding expression has been derived in Ref. magnus  where it was demonstrated that in the language of the Goldstone boson such a background corresponds to a time dependent phase of the order parameter. This phase in our notations takes the form $`e^{i\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}t}`$. If vorton moves with velocity $`\stackrel{}{v}`$ through this fluid, the force exerted on the vorton per unit length:

$$\stackrel{}{F}=2\pi \gamma \eta ^2\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}\stackrel{}{v}\times \stackrel{}{m},$$
(39)
where $`\gamma `$ is the standard relativistic factor and $`\stackrel{}{m}`$ is the circulation vector of unit magnitude, $`|\stackrel{}{m}|=1`$, which points in the direction of the string. If the velocity vector $`\stackrel{}{v}`$ is perpendicular to the plane formed by the vorton, then there will be a Magnus force present which points outward, further stabilizing the vorton. This will in turn increase the size of the vorton. If the vorton moves in the opposite direction, the Magnus force points inward, which decreases the size of the vorton.

Finally, the issue of quantum stability of vortons has not been addressed in this paper. In the pure current case ($`Q=0,N0`$), the instanton solution has been explicitly constructed and the lifetime calculated analytically vilenkin . The decay mechanism is a quantum mechanical tunneling process where the condensate goes to zero on the core, allowing the winding number to decrease from $`N`$ to $`N1`$. However, the vortons discussed here have nonzero $`Q,N`$ so the results obtained in vilenkin  do not apply. In spite of this fact, we expect that the vortons in high density QCD discussed in this paper are long lived due to the approximate “chiral” relation (27) which must be satisfied in order to have superconducting strings. We expect that the decay rate is exponentially suppressed as the decay of a vorton is associated with tunneling processes. These tunneling processes may be due to weak interaction processes, among other things. In general, we expect that the lifetime is relatively long lived because of the fact that the tunneling decay rate should be quite small for such a large object. However, at the moment we cannot make any definitive statements on the lifetime of the vortons discussed in this paper. In order to make such estimations we need to understand the vorton interactions, which were completely ignored in this work. To understand the dynamics of vortons we need to know: first of all, the interaction of the Goldstone particles with the vorton. This would allow us to calculate the corresponding cross section which is important for the analysis of the frictional force acting on a moving vorton. Secondly, the same interaction would allow us to estimate the Goldstone mode production by the vorton. This knowledge is essential for the study of the Goldstone boson radiation from moving vortons. Finally, the interaction is essential for studying such issues as the typical lifetime of a vorton, the typical behavior of vortons when they can join or disjoin with each other and absorb or emit the Goldstone bosons. The quantum numbers ($`N,Q,M`$) should be conserved in all the processes mentioned above. Unfortunately, none of these questions can be answered at this point.

## V Conclusion

In this paper we have shown that loops of superconducting $`K`$ strings krstrings ; superk , called vortons, can exist as classically stable objects within the CFL$`+K^0`$ phase of high density QCD. These vortons are certainly topological trivial configurations as was explained in the original papers (see Ref. defectsbook ). However, if the configuration is very large in size, it might have a very large lifetime. We have not presented specific estimates for the lifetime in our case, but we hope that it is the same as in previous studies and quite large vilenkin . The main mechanism which stabilizes these superconducting $`K`$-string loops is the presence of charge and current which is trapped on the string. The main difference between these vortons and vortons within other models is the presence of a domain wall which is stretched across the surface. These domain walls set up upper bound on the allowable vorton size which is $`m_{\mathrm{dw}}^1`$ in contrast with cosmic vortons which could become arbitrary large in size.

The most intriguing aspect of these vortons is their ability to carry angular momentum due to the presence of nonzero charge and current trapped in the core. Moreover, the vortons are very efficient carriers of the angular momentum. Indeed, to simplify our estimates in what follows, we use $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}`$ to be a typical scale of the problem, it could be any of dimensional parameters (or their combination) discussed above such as $`\mu _{eff},\mathrm{\Delta },k,\omega ,f_\pi `$, etc. As we demonstrated above, the angular momentum carried by a single vorton of size $`L`$ is $`M\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}^2L^2`$ \[see Eq. (34)\], and grows proportional to the area $`L^2`$ up to a maximal possible size, which is $`\overline{L}m_{\mathrm{dw}}^1`$. As we mentioned, the parameter $`m_{\mathrm{dw}}`$ has a characteristic scale of the weak interactions, and it is three order of magnitudes smaller than $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}`$. At the same time, the energy of the vorton scales linearly with the size, $`E\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}^2L`$ as long as $`L\overline{L}m_{\mathrm{dw}}^1`$. Therefore, the angular momentum per energy scales as $`M/EL`$ for $`L\overline{L}m_{\mathrm{dw}}^1`$. At the same time, a typical straight vortex (not a vorton) is expected to carry the angular momentum according to the relation $`M\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}L`$ and $`E\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}^2L`$, such that $`M/E\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}^1`$. Therefore, the vortons are much more efficient carriers of the angular momentum than any regular straight vortices. In addition to this, the larger the vorton, the more efficient they become at carrying angular momentum. However, as explained above there is a maximum vorton size before they become unstable; it is $`\overline{L}m_{\mathrm{dw}}^1`$.

Therefore, one should expect that most of the vortons in the core of a neutron star would have one and the same typical size, which is $`\overline{L}m_{\mathrm{dw}}^1`$. As discussed above, the vortons ability to carry angular momentum efficiently makes them the important dynamical degrees of freedom. In particular, they might be the key elements for the explanation of phenomenon such as glitches. The same vortons might be important objects for other problems such as describing the dynamics of the electromagnetic fields in cores of the neutron stars (vortons are positively charged configurations due to a $`K^+`$ condensate trapped in the vortex). The vortons could be important for discussions of transport properties, as well as problems related to the cooling of the system. This is due to the fact that a vorton is a relatively large configuration with fields correlated over large distances (in QCD units). In such a case, as is known, the cross section for the particle scattering by strings, could be very large, and could influence the cooling of the system. Finally, the vortons might be the only possible carriers of the angular momentum in the crystalline superconducting phase krishna . Indeed, in this phase it is quite difficult (if possible at all) to construct a regular straight vortex which can carry the angular momentum. To conclude: we believe that the physics of vortons could prove to be interesting for compact astrophysical objects such as neutron stars where CFL phase is likely realized. We hope that the present paper will initiate some activity in the direction of the phenomenological implications of vortons.

Furthermore, we believe that the study of such objects is important due to a completely different reason. Vortons were originally introduced in the context of cosmology davis ; davisshell2 ; davisshell3  and more recently within the $`SO(5)`$ theory of high $`T_c`$ superconductivity so5vorton . In this paper we argued that vortons may play an important role in astrophysics. The analogy between all these fields provides another example where astrophysical and cosmological phenomena have similarities with systems in condensed matter physics, and therefore, may be studied by doing laboratory experiments. For further details on recent condensed matter experiments designed in order to test ideas drawn from cosmology we refer the reader to the review papers kibble ; volovik .

## Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Robert Brandenberger for useful discussions. One of us (A.R.Z.) is thankful to KITP, Santa Barbara, for the organization of the workshop “QCD And Gauge Theory Dynamics In The RHIC Era”, which initiated this study. This work was supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.