title: Intercommutation of semilocal strings and Skyrmions.
abstract: We study the intercommuting of semilocal strings and Skyrmions for a wide range of internal parameters, velocities, and intersection angles by numerically evolving the equations of motion. We find that the collisions of strings and strings, strings and Skyrmions, and Skyrmions and Skyrmions all lead to intercommuting for a wide range of parameters. Even the collisions of unstable Skyrmions and strings lead to intercommuting, demonstrating that the phenomenon of intercommuting is very robust, extending to dissimilar field configurations that are not stationary solutions. Even more remarkably, at least for the semilocal U(2) formulation considered here, all intercommutations trigger a reversion to Nielsen-Olesen strings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, IGPG, CGWP, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Laguna
authors.forename: Vishnu
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Natchu
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Matzner
authors.forename: Tanmay
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vachaspati