Minkowski space non-Abelian classical solutions with noninteger winding number change

Abstract
Working in a spherically symmetric ansatz in Minkowski space, we discover new solutions to the classical equations of motion of pure SU(2) gauge theory. These solutions represent spherical shells of energy, which move inward near the speed of light at early times, excite the region of space around the origin at intermediate times, and move outward at late times. The solutions change the winding number in bounded regions centered at the origin by noninteger amounts. They also produce a noninteger topological charge in these regions. We show that the previously discovered solutions of Lüscher and Schechter also have these properties.
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