  It has been shown that superconducting vortices with antiferromagnetic cores
arise within Zhang's SO(5) model of high temperature supercondictivity. Similar
phenomena where the symmetry is not restored in the core of the vortex was
discussed by Witten in the case of cosmic strings. It was also suggested that
such strings can form stable vortons, which are closed loops of such vortices.
Motivated by this analogy, in following we will show that loops of such
vortices in the SO(5) model of high T_c superconductivity can exist as
classically stable objects, stabilized by the presence of conserved charges
trapped on the vortex core. These objects carry angular momentum which
counteracts the effect of the string tension that causes the loops to shrink.
The existence of such quasiparticles, which are called vortons, could be
interesting for the physics of high temperature superconductors. We also
speculate that the phase transition between superconducting and
antiferromagnetic phases at zero external magnetic field when the doping
parameter changes is associated with vortons.
