False vacuum decay in kink scattering

TL;DR

This paper studies how kink-antikink collisions in a modified $^4$ model with a false vacuum affect decay patterns, revealing complex interactions and potential delays in false vacuum decay.

Contribution

It introduces a modified $^4$ model with a false vacuum and analyzes kink interactions in the small deformation regime, highlighting new scattering behaviors.

Findings

Attractive interactions cause complex scattering patterns.

False vacuum decay can be significantly delayed.

Small deformation of standard kink affects collision outcomes.

Abstract

In this work we consider kink-antikink and antikink-kink collisions in a modified $\phi^4$ model with a false vacuum characterized by a dimensionless parameter $\epsilon$. The usual $\phi^4$ model is recovered for $\epsilon=0$. We investigate the $\epsilon<<1$ regime where the kink in the presence of false vacuum can be understood as a small deformation of the standard kink for the $\phi^4$ model. We show that the attractive interaction between the kink-antikink pair leads to a rich scattering pattern, in some cases delaying considerably the false vacuum decay.