Quantum effects on Higgs winding configurations

We examine the quantum corrections to the static energy for Higgs winding c onfigurations. We evaluate the effective action for such configurations in Weinberg-Salam theory without U(1)-gauge fields pr fermions. For a configur ation whose size is much smaller than the inverse W-mass, quantum contribut ions to the energy are comparable to the classical energy. Moreover, it is insufficient to consider only one-loop corrections, even as h --> 0. Indeed , all loop orders contribute equally to the static energy. Nevertheless, qu antum fluctuations do not stabilize winding configurations.