Fermions on Thick Branes in the Background of Sine-Gordon Kinks

TL;DR

This paper investigates fermion localization on thick branes generated by sine-Gordon kinks, revealing conditions under which both chiral zero modes can be trapped, especially highlighting differences between two types of scalar-fermion couplings.

Contribution

It analyzes fermion localization on sine-Gordon kink branes with two scalar-fermion couplings, showing that both chiral zero modes can be trapped under certain conditions, unlike previous models.

Findings

Both chiral zero modes can be localized for positive coupling parameters.

The effective potential for right chiral fermions can have wells and barriers, enabling their localization.

The spectrum includes a continuous gapless set of KK states with positive mass squared.

Abstract

A class of thick branes in the background of sine-Gordon kinks with a scalar potential $V(\phi)=p(1+\cos\frac{2\phi}{q})$ was constructed by R. Koley and S. Kar [Classical Quantum Gravity \textbf{22}, 753 (2005)]. In this paper, in the background of the warped geometry, we investigate the issue of localization of spin half fermions on these branes in the presence of two types of scalar-fermion couplings: $\eta\bar{\Psi}\phi\Psi$ and $\eta\bar{\Psi}\sin\phi \Psi$. By presenting the mass-independent potentials in the corresponding Schr\"{o}dinger equations, we obtain the lowest Kaluza--Klein (KK) modes and a continuous gapless spectrum of KK states with $m^2>0$ for both types of couplings. For the Yukawa coupling $\eta\bar{\Psi}\phi\Psi$, the effective potential of the right chiral fermions for positive $q$ and $\eta$ is always positive, hence only the effective potential of the left chiral fermions could trap the corresponding zero mode. This is a well-known conclusion which had been discussed extensively in the literature. However, for the coupling $\eta\bar{\Psi}\sin\phi \Psi$, the effective potential of the right chiral fermions for positive $q$ and $\eta$ is no longer always positive. Although the value of the potential at the location of the brane is still positive, it has a series of wells and barriers on each side, which ensures that the right chiral fermion zero mode could be trapped. Thus we may draw the remarkable conclusion: for positive $\eta$ and $q$, the potentials of both the left and right chiral fermions could trap the corresponding zero modes under certain restrictions.