One-loop corrections to the mass of self-dual semi-local planar topological solitons

A formula is derived that allows the computation of one-loop mass shifts for self-dual semilocal topological solitons. These extended objects, which in three spatial dimensions are called semi-local strings, arise in a generalized Abelian Higgs model with a doublet of complex Higgs fields. Having a mixture of global, SU(2), and local (gauge), U(1), symmetries, this weird system may seem bizarre, but it is in fact the bosonic sector of electro-weak theory when the weak mixing angle is π2. The procedure for computing the semi-classical mass shifts is based on canonical quantization and heat kernel/zeta function regularization methods.