Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: Nontopological gauged soliton solutions called $Q$-balls arise in many scalar field theories that are invariant under a $U(1)$ gauge symmetry. The related, but qualitatively distinct, $Q$-shell solitons have only been shown to exist for special potentials. We investigate gauged solitons in a generic sixth-order polynomial potential (that contains the leading effects of many effective field theories) and show that this potential generically allows for both $Q$-balls and $Q$-shells. We argue that $Q$-shell solutions occur in many, and perhaps all, potentials that have previously only been shown to contain $Q$-balls. We give simple analytic characterizations of these $Q$-shell solutions, leading to excellent predictions of their physical properties.
Institution: University of Virginia
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W3160604284