SU(2) cosmological solitons - art. no. 044047

We present a class of numerical solutions to the SU(2) nonlinear alpha mode l coupled to the Einstein equations with a cosmological constant Lambda gre ater than or equal to 0 in spherical symmetry. These solutions are characte rized by the presence of a regular static region which includes a center of symmetry. They are parametrized by a dimensionless "coupling constant" bet a, the sign of the cosmological constant, and an integer "excitation number " n. The phenomenology we find is compared to the corresponding solutions f ound for the Einstein-Yang-Mills (EYM) equations with a positive Lambda (EY M Lambda). If we choose Lambda positive and fix n, we find a family of stat ic spacetimes with a Killing horizon for 0 less than or equal to beta<beta( max). As a limiting solution for beta=beta(max) we find a globally static s pacetime with Lambda=0, the lowest excitation being the Einstein static uni verse. To interpret the physical significance of the Killing horizon in the cosmological context, we apply the concept of a trapping horizon as formul ated by Hayward. For small values of beta an asymptotically de Sitter dynam ic region contains the static region within a Killing horizon of cosmologic al type. For strong coupling the static region contains an "eternal cosmolo gical black hole."