Sphalerons at finite mixing angle

The classical sphaleron is constructed for the full SU(2)×{}U(1) electroweak theory. Unlike the sphaleron of the SU(2) Yang-Mills-Higgs theory, it is not spherically symmetric due to the coupling to the U(1) field. It is symmetric only under rotations around the z axis and parity reflections. The mixing angle θW is varied over the full range 0{≤}θW{≤}{π}/2. When the mixing angle is increased the energy of the sphaleron decreases, and the energy density changes its shape from a sphere at θW=0 to a very elongated spheroid at large values of the mixing angle. At the physical value of the mixing angle, however, the electroweak sphaleron differs only a little from the spherical sphaleron.