Collective Coordinate Models for 2-Vortex Shape Mode Dynamics

Abstract: Models are developed for the motion of charge-2 Abelian Higgs vortices through the 2-vortex moduli space $M$, with the vortices excited by their shape mode oscillations. The models simplify to the well-known geodesic flow on $M$, modified by a potential, when the mode oscillations are fast relative to the moduli space motion and their amplitudes are small. When the lowest-frequency mode is excited with a large amplitude, the geodesic flow is not a correct description. Instead, a chaotic, or even fractal, multi-bounce structure in vortex-vortex collisions is predicted.