Eur. Phys. J. C (2011) 71: 1683
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-011-1683-5

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Localized D-dimensional global k-defects

¹ Centro de Física do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 687, 4169-007, Porto, Portugal
² Departamento de Física da Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 687, 4169-007, Porto, Portugal
³ Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, 58051-970, João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil
⁴ Departamento de Ciências Exatas, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, 58297-000, Rio Tinto, PB, Brazil
⁵ Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, 58109-970, Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brazil

^* e-mail: bazeia@fisica.ufpb.br

Received: 7 February 2011
Revised: 27 May 2011
Published online: 23 June 2011

Abstract

We explicitly demonstrate the existence of static global defect solutions of arbitrary dimensionality whose energy does not diverge at spatial infinity, by considering maximally symmetric solutions described by an action with non-standard kinetic terms in a D+1 dimensional Minkowski space-time. We analytically determine the defect profile both at small and large distances from the defect centre. We study the stability of such solutions and discuss possible implications of our findings, in particular for dark matter and charge fractionalization in graphene.