INTERACTION ENERGY OF GENERALIZED ABELIAN HIGGS VORTICES

The interaction energy between vortices of the generalized Abelian Hig gs vortices is studied numerically. These are the solitons of the p-th member of the hierarchy of Maxwell-Higgs systems, the p = 1 member of which is the usual Abelian Higgs model. It is found that for all p, t hese vortices have both attractive and repulsive phases, the strengths of these interactions decreasing successively for increasing p. A det ailed comparison of the p = 1,2 and p = 3 cases is made quantitatively , and an extended model, composed of the p = 1 and p = 2 members, is s tudied in some detail and shown to exhibit attractive and repulsive ph ases. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.