Quantum Corrections to Q-Balls

TL;DR

This paper investigates quantum effects on Q-balls, showing that one-loop quantum corrections can destabilize small Q-balls and providing an approximation for their quantum energy based on scattering problem analysis.

Contribution

The study extends calculational techniques to include quantum effects on Q-balls, revealing destabilization of small Q-balls and linking quantum energy to scattering properties.

Findings

Quantum effects can destabilize small Q-balls.

A simple approximation for quantum energy is derived.

The properties of Q-balls are connected to scattering problem analysis.

Abstract

We extend calculational techniques for static solitons to the case of field configurations with simple time dependence in order to consider quantum effects on the stability of Q-balls. These nontopological solitons exist classically for any fixed value of an unbroken global charge Q. We show that one-loop quantum effects can destabilize very small Q-balls. We show how the properties of the soliton are reflected in the associated scattering problem, and find that a good approximation to the full one-loop quantum energy of a Q-ball is given by $\omega - E_0$, where $\omega$ is the frequency of the classical soliton's time dependence, and $E_0$ is the energy of the lowest bound state in the associated scattering problem.