ZERO MODES ON LINKED STRINGS

We study linked loops of strings in the presence of bosonic condensates and fermionic zero modes on the strings. We find that the strings necessarily carry a current if the bosons have an Aharanov-Bohm interaction with the string. The fermionic case is analyzed in the context of the standard model where there are lepton and quark zero modes on Z-strings. Here we find that the fermionic ground state in the linked string background is lower than the ground state when the loops are unlinked but otherwise identical. As in the bosonic case, the Z-strings carry a non-vanishing electric current in the ground state. The baryon number of the linked configuration is found to agree with previous indirect results. We also evaluate the angular momentum, electromagnetic charge and baryonic three current on the linked Z-string configuration. Finally we point out a possible gravitational analogue of the linked string system.