Moduli Spaces of Topological Solitons

This thesis presents a detailed study of phenomena related to topological solitons (in $2$-dimensions). Topological solitons are smooth, localised, finite energy solutions in non-linear field theories. The problems are about the moduli spaces of lumps in the projective plane and vortices on compact Riemann surfaces.

Harmonic maps that minimize the Dirichlet energy in their homotopy classes are known as lumps. Lump solutions in real projective space are explicitly given by rational maps subject to a certain symmetry requirement. This has consequences for the behaviour of lumps and their symmetries. An interesting feature is that the moduli space of charge $3$ lumps is a $7$- dimensional manifold of cohomogeneity one. In this thesis, we discuss the charge $3$ moduli space, calculate its metric and find explicit formula for various geometric quantities. We discuss the moment of inertia (or angular integral) of moduli spaces of charge $3$ lumps. We also discuss the implications for lump decay. We discuss interesting families of moduli spaces of charge $5$ lumps using the symmetry property and Riemann-Hurwitz formula. We discuss the K\"ahler potential for lumps and find an explicit formula on the $1$-dimensional charge $3$ lumps.

The metric on the moduli spaces of vortices on compact Riemann surfaces where the fields have zeros of positive multiplicity is evaluated. We calculate the metric, K\"{a}hler potential and scalar curvature on the moduli spaces of hyperbolic $3$- and some submanifolds of $4$-vortices. We construct collinear hyperbolic $3$- and $4$-vortices and derive explicit formula of their corresponding metrics. We find interesting subspaces in both $3$- and $4$-vortices on the hyperbolic plane and find an explicit formula for their respective metrics and scalar curvatures.

We first investigate the metric on the totally geodesic submanifold $\Sigma_{n,m},\, n+m=N$ of the moduli space $M_N$ of hyperbolic $N$-vortices. In this thesis, we discuss the K\"{a}hler potential on $\Sigma_{n,m}$ and an explicit formula shall be derived in three different approaches. The first is using the direct definition of K\"ahler potential. The second is based on the regularized action in Liouville theory. The third method is applying a scaling argument. All the three methods give the same result. We discuss the geometry of $\Sigma_{n,m}$, in particular when $n=m=2$ and $m=n-1$. We evaluate the vortex scattering angle-impact parameter relation and discuss the $\frac{\pi}{2}$ vortex scattering of the space $\Sigma_{2,2}$. Moreover, we study the $\frac{\pi}{n}$ vortex scattering of the space $\Sigma_{n,n-1}$. We also compute the scalar curvature of $\Sigma_{n,m}$.

Finally, we discuss vortices with impurities and calculate explicit metrics in the presence of impurities.