Betti Hartmann

We study the non-linear Schroedinger equation in (1+1) dimensions in which the nonlinear term is taken in the form of a nonlocal interaction of the Coulomb or Yukawa-type. We solve the equation numerically and find that, for all values of the nonlocal coupling constant, and in all cases, the equation possesses solitonic solutions. We show that our results, for the dependence of the height of the soliton on the coupling constant, are in good agreement with the predictions based on an analytic treatment in which the soliton is approximated by a gaussian.

We study a 6-dimensional brane world model with an abelian string residing in the two extra dimensions. We study both static as well as inflating branes and find analytic solutions for the case of trivial matter fields in the bulk. Next to singular spacetimes, we also find solutions which are regular including cigarlike universes as well as solutions with periodic metric functions. These latter solutions arise if in a singular spacetime a static brane is replaced by an inflating brane. We determine the pattern of generic solutions for positive, negative and zero bulk cosmological constant.

We study a 7-dimensional brane world scenario with a Ricci-flat 3-brane residing in the core of a composite monopole defect, i.e. a defect composed of a 'tHooft-Polyakov and a global monopole. Admitting a direct interaction between the two bosonic sectors of the theory, we analyse the structure of the space-time in the limits of small, respectively large direct interaction coupling constant. For large direct interaction, the global monopole disappears from the system and leaves behind a negative cosmological constant in the bulk such that gravity-localising solutions are possible without the a priori introduction of a bulk cosmological constant.

We consider solutions of the Yang-Mills-Higgs system coupled to gravity in asymptotically de Sitter space-time. The basic features of two classes of solutions are discussed, one of them corresponding to magnetic monopoles, the other one to sphalerons. We find that although the total mass within the cosmological horizon of these configurations is finite, their mass evaluated at timelike infinity generically diverges for most values of the cosmological constant. Also, no solutions exist in the absence of a Higgs potential.

We construct the first examples of deformed non-abelian black strings in a 5-dimensional Einstein-Yang-Mills model. Assuming all fields to be independent of the extra coordinate, we construct deformed black strings, which in the 4-dimensional picture correspond to axially symmetric non-abelian black holes in gravity-dilaton theory. These solutions thus have deformed S^2 x R horizon topology. We study fundamental properties of the black strings and find that for all choices of the gravitational coupling two branches of solutions exist. The limiting behaviour of the second branch of solutions however depends strongly on the choice of the gravitational coupling.

We consider the Abelian Higgs model in a (p+2)-dimensional space time with topology M^{p+1} x S^1 as a field theoretical toy model for tachyon condensation on Dp-branes. The theory has periodic sphaleron solutions with the normal mode equations resembling Lame-type equations. These equations are quasi-exactly solvable (QES) for specific choices of the Higgs- to gauge boson mass ratio and hence a finite number of algebraic normal modes can be computed explicitely. We calculate the tachyon potential for two different values of the Higgs- to gauge boson mass ratio and show that in comparison to previously studied pure scalar field models an exact cancellation between the negative energy contribution at the minimum of the tachyon potential and the brane tension is possible for the simplest truncation in the expansion about the field around the sphaleron. This gives further evidence for the correctness of Sen's conjecture.