Nontopological solitons as nucleation sites for cosmological phase transitions

Abstract

I consider quantum field theories that admit charged non-topological solitons of the Q-ball type, and use the fact that in a first-order cosmological phase transition, below the critical temperature, there is a value of the soliton charge above which the soliton becomes unstable and expands, converting space to the true vacuum, much like a critical bubble in the case of ordinary tunneling. Using a simple model for the production rate of Q-balls through charge accretion during a random walk out of equilibrium, I calculate the probability for the formation of critical charge solitons and estimate the amount of supercooling needed for the phase transition to be completed.