Non-Canonical Q-balls

TL;DR

This paper generalizes the study of Q-balls in theories with non-canonical kinetic terms, revealing new conditions for their existence and stability, with implications for early universe physics.

Contribution

It extends Q-ball analysis to non-canonical kinetic theories, identifying when such theories can support stable Q-balls and their thick-wall limits.

Findings

Non-canonical kinetic terms enable Q-balls in theories where potentials alone do not.

Conditions for energetic stability of thick-wall Q-balls are established.

Implications for early universe phenomenology are discussed.

Abstract

Theories possessing non-canonical kinetic terms are often studied for Q-ball states in an ad-hoc manner. This paper seeks to generalise their study for both thin- and thick-wall Q-balls. Specifically, we show that theories whose potential cannot house Q-balls can do so by virtue of their non-canonical kinetic terms. Furthermore, we also constrain the theories that possess an energetically stable thick-wall limit, with ramifications for their early universe phenomenology.