Dynamics of Periodic Monopoles

BPS monopoles which are periodic in one of the spatial directions correspond, via a generalized Nahm transform, to solutions of the Hitchin equations on a cylinder. A one-parameter family of solutions of these equations, representing a geodesic in the 2-monopole moduli space, is constructed numerically. It corresponds to a slow-motion dynamical evolution, in which two parallel monopole chains collide and scatter at right angles.