Gauged monopole-bubble

The decay of a metastable false vacuum by bubble nucleation is studied in the high temperature limit of the gauge theory in which an SO(3) gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken to an SO(2). The effects of internal symmetry are so drastic that, in addition to the known Euclidean bounce solution, there exists a new bubble solution involving a ʹt Hooft–Polyakov monopole at its center the moment it is nucleated. The decay rate and evolution are analyzed.