Dressing Up the Kink

Abstract

Many quantum field theoretical models possess non-trivial solutions which are stable for topological reasons. We construct a self-consistent example for a self-interacting scalar field--the quantum (or dressed) kink--using a two particle irreducible effective action in the Hartree approximation. This new solution includes quantum fluctuations determined self-consistently and nonperturbatively at the 1-loop resummed level and allowed to backreact on the classical mean-field profile. This dressed kink is static under the familiar Hartree equations for the time evolution of quantum fields. Because the quantum fluctuation spectrum is lower lying in the presence of the defect, the quantum kink has a lower rest energy than its classical counterpart. However its energy is higher than well-known strict 1-loop results, where backreaction and fluctuation self-interactions are omitted. We also show that the quantum kink exists at finite temperature and that its profile broadens as temperature is increased until it eventually disappears.

arXiv comment13 pages, latex, 3 eps figures; revised with yet additional references, minor rewording

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Self-consistent solitons for vacuum decay in radiatively generated potentials
• Green's function method for handling radiative effects on false vacuum decay
• Wobbling kinks in ${\varphi }^4$ theory
• A transition in the spectrum of the topological sector of ${\varphi }_2^4$ theory at strong coupling
• On the quantum stability of Q-balls
• False vacuum decay rates, more precisely
• One-loop results for kink and domain wall profiles at zero and finite temperature
• Self-consistent radiative corrections to false vacuum decay
• $\lambda {\varphi }^4$ Kink and sine-Gordon Soliton in the GUP Framework