The sl(2) affine Toda model coupled to the matter: solitons and confinement

TL;DR

This paper studies the affine Toda model coupled to matter fields, revealing soliton solutions, their properties, and a confinement mechanism for U(1) charge within sine-Gordon solitons, with implications for understanding non-perturbative phenomena.

Contribution

It constructs explicit soliton solutions in the affine Toda model and demonstrates a confinement mechanism analogous to bag models for U(1) charge.

Findings

Explicit one and two-soliton solutions constructed

No physical breather solutions found

Confinement of U(1) charge within solitons demonstrated

Abstract

The so-called conformal affine Toda theory coupled to the matter fields (CATM), associated to the $\hat{sl}(2)$ affine Lie algebra, is studied. The conformal symmetry is fixed by setting a connection to zero, then one defines an off-critical model, the affine Toda model coupled to the matter (ATM). The quantum version of this reduction process is discussed by means of the perturbative Lagrangian viewpoint, showing that the ATM theory is a spontaneously broken and reduced version of the CATM model. We show, using bosonization techniques that the off-critical theory decouples into a sine-Gordon model and a free scalar. Using the "dressing" transformation method we construct the explicit forms of the one and two-soliton classical solutions, and show that a physical bound soliton-antisoliton pair (breather) does not exist. Moreover, we verify that these solutions share some features of the sine- Gordon (massive Thirring) solitons, and satisfy the classical equivalence of topological and Noether currents in the ATM model. Imposing the Noether and topological currents equivalence as a constraint, one can show that the ATM model leads to a bag model like mechanism for the confinement of the U(1) "color" charge inside the sine-Gordon solitons (baryons).