Anomalous fermion production in gravitational collapse
Abstract
The Dirac equation is solved in the Einstein-Yang-Mills background found by Bartnik and McKinnon. We find a normalizable zero-energy fermion mode in the s-wave sector. As shown recently, their solution corresponds to a gravitational sphaleron which mediates transitions between topologically distinct vacua. Since the Bartnik-McKinnon solution is unstable, it will either collapse to form a black hole or radiate away its energy. In either case, as the Chern-Simons number of the configuration changes, there will be an accompanying anomalous change in fermion number.
- Publication:
-
Physics Letters B
- Pub Date:
- September 1993
- DOI:
- 10.1016/0370-2693(93)91315-E
- arXiv:
- arXiv:gr-qc/9305018
- Bibcode:
- 1993PhLB..314...13G
- Keywords:
-
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology;
- High Energy Physics - Theory
- E-Print:
- 12 pages, preprint DAMTP93/R14