Generating Non-topological Solitons Via Thermal Corrections: Higgs Balls

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that thermal corrections can induce non-topological solitons called Q-balls, specifically Higgs balls, in certain models, highlighting conditions for their existence in the Standard Model and its extensions.

Contribution

It reveals that finite temperature effects can generate Q-ball solutions without attractive interactions, and explores the potential for Higgs balls within the Standard Model and beyond.

Findings

Thermal corrections can produce Q-balls even without attractive forces.

Higgs balls could exist if the Standard Model were ungauged.

Gauge interactions in the Standard Model prevent Higgs ball formation.

Abstract

Scalar fields which carry charge can generally form non-topoligical solitons (Q-balls), if the energy in the extended configuration is less than the energy of an equivalent number of free quanta. For global Q-balls, such solitons exist whenever the potential grows slower than quadratically. We show that even in the absence of attractive interactions, finite temperature corrections can generate Q-ball solutions, as the coefficient of cubic corrections is generally negative. As an illustration of this, we consider the possibility of constructing Q-balls using the Higgs field. We first show that the finite temperature corrections would enable the existence of Higgs balls if the Standard Model symmetry was ungauged. We then show that Higgs self-interactions mediated by the Standard Model gauge bosons are sufficient to prevent the existence of these states in the actual Standard Model, but they can be present in a variety of extensions.