skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Tunnel creation of kink-antikink pairs from an inhomogeneous vacuum by an external field

Journal Article · · Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (USA)
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Physico-Technical Department, Kharkov State University, 4 Dzerzhinsky Square, Kharkov, 310077 (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)
  2. P. P. Shirshov Institute for Oceanology of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, 23 Krasikov Street, Moscow (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)
  3. Low Temperatures Physics and Engineering Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, 47 Lenin Avenue, Kharkov (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)

The problem of under-barrier creation of kink-antikink pairs by a constant background field is considered within the framework of the one-dimensional sine-Gordon and {phi}{sup 4} models with an inserted periodic lattice of local defects, which renders the true vacuum of the models spatially inhomogeneous. Two types of defects are considered, viz., the ones generating the inhomogeneous vacuum containing dipoles or quadrupoles pinned at sites of the lattice. A specific feature of the pair production in such a system is that one or both members of the pair appear on the mass shell in a state pinned at a site. The energy of a pinned kink is lower than that of a free kink, which results in a substantially shorter under-barrier trajectory and, hence, gives rise to a strong growth of the pair-production rate. In the absence of the background field the dipole inhomogeneous vacuum is double degenerate in its polarization, which gives rise to kinks of the second kind---the ones reversing the polarization. Mass, charge, and an exponent determining the kink-antikink tunnel-creation rate are found for these kinks.

OSTI ID:
6404511
Journal Information:
Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (USA), Vol. 42:1; ISSN 0163-1829
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Kink-antikink formation from an oscillation mode by sudden distortion of the evolution potential
Journal Article · Sun Mar 15 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields · OSTI ID:6404511

Kink-antikink scattering in a quantum vacuum
Journal Article · Thu Apr 21 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Journal of High Energy Physics (Online) · OSTI ID:6404511

Large-scale flow in competing-interaction systems
Journal Article · Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1990 · Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (USA) · OSTI ID:6404511