STRING MODEL FOR SHORT-RANGE INTERACTIONS OF VORTICES

A string model for the short range interactions of vortices in the Goldstone and Abelian Higgs theory is presented. It is applied to the scattering of parallel vortices with a small impact parameter and reproduces the right-angle scattering accompanied by the occurrence of a superluminal velocity of the zeros of the Higgs field. The form of the metric on the vortex moduli space is extracted. A stable bound state of the string-antistring pair is studied.