Classical decay rates of oscillons

Zhang, Hong-Yi; Amin, Mustafa A.; Copeland, Edmund J.; Saffin, Paul M.; Lozanov, Kaloian D.

Abstract

Oscillons are extremely long-lived, spatially-localized field configurations in real-valued scalar field theories that slowly lose energy via radiation of scalar waves. Before their eventual demise, oscillons can pass through (one or more) exceptionally stable field configurations where their decay rate is highly suppressed. We provide an improved calculation of the non-trivial behavior of the decay rates, and lifetimes of oscillons. In particular, our calculation correctly captures the existence (or absence) of the exceptionally long-lived states for large amplitude oscillons in a broad class of potentials, including non-polynomial potentials that flatten at large field values. The key underlying reason for the improved (by many orders of magnitude in some cases) calculation is the systematic inclusion of a spacetime-dependent effective mass term in the equation describing the radiation emitted by oscillons (in addition to a source term). Our results for the exceptionally stable configurations, decay rates, and lifetime of large amplitude oscillons (in some cases > 10^8 oscillations) in such flattened potentials might be relevant for cosmological applications.

Citation

Zhang, H., Amin, M. A., Copeland, E. J., Saffin, P. M., & Lozanov, K. D. (2020). Classical decay rates of oscillons. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2020(07), 055-055. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2020/07/055

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 29, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jul 27, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020-07
• Deposit Date: Jul 29, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 28, 2021
• Journal: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2020
• Issue: 07
• Pages: 055-055
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2020/07/055
• Keywords: Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4794354
• Publisher URL: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1475-7516/2020/07/055