Abstract
A family of wormhole instanton solutions is obtained in the non-Abelian Born-Infeld theory in the presence of a positive cosmological constant. These wormholes have a closed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker geometry and a nontrivial SO(4)-symmetric gauge sector. It is found that when the matter sector in the action is dominated by Born-Infeld terms inducing a string gas behavior, then no wormhole solutions are admissible. However, when the gauge fields asymptotically lead to a radiation scenario, wormhole solutions become possible. The presence of Born-Infeld perturbations in this stage determines specific modifications for the wormhole dynamics. Some of these physical implications are consequently discussed. In particular, we comment on how they can modify the quantization in energy levels of the wormhole solution. We also mention how this may affect the quantization of topological charges and conservation of fermion number.
- Received 5 June 2002
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.66.064012
©2002 American Physical Society