THE SPECTRUM OF BOGOMOLNYI SOLITONS IN GAUGED LINEAR SIGMA-MODELS

Gauged Linear sigma models with C-m-valued scalar fields and gauge gro up U(1)(d), d less than or equal to m, have soliton solutions of Bogom ol'nyi type if a suitably chosen potential for the scalar fields is al so included in the Lagrangian. Here such models are studied on (2 + 1) -dimensional Minkowski space. If the dynamics of the gauge fields is g overned by a Maxwell term the appropriate potential is a sum of genera lised Higgs potentials known as Fayet-Iliopoulos D-terms. Many interes ting topological solitons of Bogomol'nyi type arise in models of this kind, including various types of vortices (e.g. Nielsen-Olesen, semilo cal and superconducting vortices) as well as, in certain limits, textu res (e.g. CPm-1 textures and gauged CPm-1 textures). This is explained and general results about the spectrum of topological defects both fo r broken and partially broken gauge symmetry are proven. When the dyna mics of the gauge fields is governed by a Chem-Simons term instead of a Maxwell term a different scalar potential is required for the theory to be of Bogomol'nyi type. The general form of that potential is give n and a particular example is discussed.