Creating kinks from particles

Abstract

We study the creation of solitons from particles, using the $\lambda {\varphi }^4$ model as a prototype. We consider the scattering of small, identical, wave pulses, that are equivalent to a sequence of particles, and find that kink-antikink pairs are created for a large region in parameter space. We also find that scattering at {\it low} velocities is favorable for creating solitons that have large energy compared to the mass of a particle.

Comments: 4 pages, 2 figures. Animations at http://www.hep.vanderbilt.edu/~duttas/kkbar.html .Included acknowledgments and fixed (minor) typos. Clarifying remarks added. Version accepted for PRL