Negative radiation pressure exerted on kinks

Journal Article · Sun Jun 15 04:00:00 EDT 2008 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.77.125012· OSTI ID:21205211

Forgacs, Peter ^[1]; Lukacs, Arpad ^[1]; Romanczukiewicz, Tomasz ^[2]

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1. MTA RMKI, Budapest 114, PO Box 49, H-1525 (Hungary)
2. Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Reymonta 4, 30-059 Cracow (Poland)

The interaction of a kink and a monochromatic plane wave in one dimensional scalar field theories is studied. It is shown that in a large class of models the radiation pressure exerted on the kink is negative, i.e. the kink is pulled towards the source of the radiation. This effect has been observed by numerical simulations in the {phi}{sup 4} model, and it is explained by a perturbative calculation assuming that the amplitude of the incoming wave is small. Quite importantly the effect is shown to be robust against small perturbations of the {phi}{sup 4} model. In the sine-Gordon (SG) model the time-averaged radiation pressure acting on the kink turns out to be zero. The results of the perturbative computations in the SG model are shown to be in full agreement with an analytical solution corresponding to the superposition of a SG kink with a cnoidal wave. It is also demonstrated that the acceleration of the kink satisfies Newton's law.

• OSTI ID: 21205211
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 77; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ANALYTICAL SOLUTION
CALCULATION METHODS
DISTURBANCES
INTERACTIONS
MONOCHROMATIC RADIATION
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
PERTURBATION THEORY
RADIATION PRESSURE
SCALAR FIELDS
SIMULATION
SINE-GORDON EQUATION
WAVE PROPAGATION