Solitosynthesis induced phase transitions

TL;DR

This paper investigates how Q-balls can induce phase transitions in a false vacuum, potentially explaining early universe phenomena, by modeling their growth from small to large sizes using quantum and semiclassical methods.

Contribution

It introduces a combined quantum and semiclassical approach to model Q-ball growth and their role in false vacuum decay within supersymmetric frameworks.

Findings

Q-balls can grow by charge accretion until they trigger a phase transition.

The Bethe-Salpeter equation effectively describes small Q-ball dynamics.

Semiclassical approximation is valid for large Q-balls.

Abstract

We consider a phase transition induced by the growth of Q-balls in a false vacuum. Such a transition could occur in the early universe in the case of broken supersymmetry with a metastable false vacuum. Small Q-balls with a negative potential energy can grow in a false vacuum by accretion of global charge until they reach critical size, expand, and cause a phase transition. We consider the growth of Q-balls from small to large, using the Bethe-Salpeter equation to describe small charge solitons and connecting to the growth of larger solitons for which the semiclassical approximation is reliable. We thus test the scenario in a simplified example inspired by supersymmetric extensions of the standard model.