Order-to-chaos transition in SU(2) Yang-Mills-Higgs theory

The onset of dynamical chaos is numerically studied in spherically symmetric time-dependent SU(2) Yang-Mills-Higgs theory. From the induction phenomena and the dependence of the maximal Lyapunov exponents on perturbations to the 't Hooft-Polyakov magnetic-monopole solution we find that there exists a critical value of the perturbation, below which the system is regular. Above this critical value, the phase transition from order to chaos takes place and thus the system exhibits a spatiotemporal chaos which generates a random inhomogeneity of the color fields. Various characteristics of a regular phase and a chaotic one and the configurations of the fields are investigated by means of the real time evolution of the system.