Distance-dependent interaction between cosmic strings inspired by higher-dimensional gauge theory

Abstract: We discuss Abrikosov-Nielsen-Olesen (ANO) strings with the one-loop effective potentials induced by higher-dimensional gauge theory. As our starting point, we consider a five-dimensional $SU(2)$ gauge theory with an extra-dimensional space $S<sup>1/Z_2$. We numerically show the properties of the strings in our model. Especially, we investigate the interaction force between two parallel strings. We find that the interaction force switches from attraction to repulsion as two strings approach each other at a certain parameter region. This interaction is not observed for the ANO strings with the Mexican hat potential. Furthermore, we find that each different factor determines the interaction between large and small interstring distances. We interpret this difference as the origin of the distance-dependent interaction. Our interpretation can also be applied to other scalar potentials. The results in our study give us a new perspective to understand the interaction between the ANO strings with various scalar potentials.