At large baryon number density, it is likely that the ground state of QCD is a color-flavor-locked phase with a $K^0$ condensate. The $\mathrm{CFL}+K^0$ phase is known to support superconducting vortex strings, and it has been previously suggested that it may also support vortons, which are superconducting vortex rings. We reexamine the question of the stability of vortons, taking into account electromagnetic effects, which make leading-order contributions to vorton dynamics but were not investigated in previous work. We find that current-carrying and electrically charged vortons can be stabilized either by their angular momentum, by Coulomb repulsion, or by a combination of both effects.

• Received 4 April 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.84.023006