Monopole-fermion interactions: The soliton picture

Monopole catalysis of proton decay is examined in the soliton picture, and monopole-soliton scattering is studied numerically by constructing time histories of scattering events. We study the effects of finite fermion masses and the coupling-constant dependence of the interactions in both an SU(2) model and the grand unified SU(5) model. All relevant Abelian Coulomb energies (including the electroweak energy at distances less than $\frac{1}{M_Z}$) are included, and we find that the qualitative nature of a scattering process is unchanged by the inclusion of these interactions.