Soft Oscillons

TL;DR

Soft oscillons are a new class of solitons with unbounded sizes, size-dependent oscillation frequencies, and unique radiation patterns, arising in scalar field theories with plateau potentials due to a confinement mechanism.

Contribution

This paper introduces soft oscillons, a novel type of soliton with continuous size spectrum and distinctive properties, expanding understanding of scalar field configurations.

Findings

Soft oscillons have unbounded sizes and size-dependent oscillation frequencies.

They exhibit high harmonic content and pulsating radiation emission.

Lifetimes can reach over 100 times their initial radius in gapless models.

Abstract

We present a novel type of soliton dubbed soft oscillons. In contrast with conventional oscillons the soft counterparts come in a continuum of unboundedly large sizes. They are peculiar also in that the oscillation frequency is set by their size and in their high harmonic content, that leads to a peculiar core structure and pulsating emission of radiation. Soft oscillons appear in a broad class of scalar field theories with plateau potentials and owe their existence to a simple confinement mechanism: a large field perturbation automatically acts as a cavity that traps massless modes. We study the classical evaporation rate, lifetime and stability under anisotropic deformations. Soft oscillons are longer lived in gapless models, where lifetimes can reach 100 times the initial radius or more.