INTERACTION ENERGY OF CHERN-SIMONS VORTICES IN THE GAUGED O(3) SIGMA-MODEL

The purpose of this Letter is to present a computation of the interact ion energy of gauged O(3) Chern-Simons vortices which are infinitely s eparated. The results will show the behaviour of the interaction energ y as a function of the constant coupling the potential, which measures the relative strength of the matter self-coupling and the electromagn etic coupling. We find that vortices attract each other for lambda > 1 and repel when lambda < 1. When lambda = 1 there is a topological low er bound on the energy. It is possible to saturate the bound if the fi elds satisfy a set of first order partial differential equations.