Ultra-relativistic oscillon collisions

TL;DR

This paper analytically studies ultra-relativistic collisions of small amplitude oscillons in 1+1 dimensions, revealing that only temporal phase shifts occur at leading order and that collisions are elastic.

Contribution

It applies a general kinematic framework to time-dependent solitons, providing the first analytical calculation of phase shifts in ultra-relativistic oscillon collisions.

Findings

Only temporal phase shift is nonzero at leading order.

Collisions are elastic at leading order.

Analytical expressions for phase shifts and amplitude changes.

Abstract

In this short note we investigate the ultra-relativistic collisions of small amplitude oscillons in 1+1 dimensions. Using the amplitude of the oscillons and the inverse relativistic boost factor $\gamma^{-1}$ as the perturbation variables, we analytically calculate the leading order spatial and temporal phase shifts, and the change in the amplitude of the oscillons after the collisions. At leading order, we find that only the temporal phase shift receives a nonzero contribution, and that the collision is elastic. This work is also the first application of the general kinematic framework for understanding ultra-relativistic collisions (arXiv:1308.0606) to intrinsically time-dependent solitons.