Abstract
The singularity present in cosmological instantons of the Hawking-Turok type is resolved by a conformal transformation, where the conformal factor has a linear zero of codimension 1. We show that if the underlying regular manifold is taken to have the topology of and the conformal factor is taken to be a twisted field so that the zero is enforced, then one obtains a one-parameter family of solutions of the classical field equations, where the minimal action solution has the conformal zero located on a minimal volume noncontractible submanifold. For instantons with two singularities, the corresponding topology is that of a cylinder with analogues of “cross-caps” at each of the end points.
- Received 14 July 2000
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.63.083509
©2001 American Physical Society