Dynamics and interaction of solitons in the BPS limit and their internal modes

TL;DR

This thesis investigates soliton dynamics and internal modes in field theories, introducing novel models and techniques, including radiation modes and a generalized moduli space, to better understand soliton interactions and stability.

Contribution

It introduces the first incorporation of genuine radiation modes into collective coordinate models and generalizes the moduli space metric for local vortices, advancing soliton theory.

Findings

Development of effective models with radiation modes

Generalization of Samols' moduli space for vortices

Identification of semi-BPS sphalerons and their stabilization mechanisms

Abstract

The main objective of this thesis has been to analyse soliton dynamics in detail, with special attention paid to the role of the internal modes associated with these configurations. Specifically, the thesis has focused on the study of one- and two-dimensional models, with the aim of developing a solid basis that can then be extended to the study in three-dimensional theories. This thesis concentrates on the study of kinks, oscillons, vortices, and sphalerons. Nevertheless, field theories constitute systems with an infinite number of degrees of freedom, which poses challenges both for obtaining analytical results and for predictive modeling. To address these challenges, this thesis employs the construction of effective models that retain the essential degrees of freedom required to capture the phenomenology observed in numerical simulations of the full theory, using the well-known collective coordinate method. In addition, other complementary mathematical tools, such as perturbative techniques, have also been employed. Among the main achievements of this doctoral thesis, it is worth highlighting the introduction, for the first time, of genuine radiation modes within the collective coordinate framework. Furthermore, a generalisation of Samols' moduli space metric for local vortices in the Abelian-Higgs model has been developed through the incorporation of vibrational degrees of freedom. Additionally, a new class of sphalerons that we have coined semi-BPS sphalerons has been identified and analysed. Finally, the role of oscillatory internal modes in the decay process of sphalerons has been studied in detail, leading to the proposal of a dynamic stabilisation mechanism. This mechanism has been further explained and extended to more general models, demonstrating the robustness and potential applicability of this phenomenon to physically relevant theories.