The semi-classical spectrum of solitons and giant magnons

Abstract

In this note, we summarize recent progress in constructing and then semi-classically quantizing solitons, or non-abelian Q-balls, in the symmetric space sine-Gordon theories. We then consider the images of these solitons in the related constrained sigma model, which are the dyonic giant magnons on the string theory world-sheet. Focussing on the case of the symmetric space S 5, we perform a semi-classical quantization of the solitons and magnons and show that both lead to Chern-Simons quantum mechanics on the internal moduli space which is a real Grassmannian SO(4)/SO(2) × SO(2) but — importantly — with a different coupling constant. Quantizing this system shows that both the Q-balls and magnons come in a tower of states transforming in symmetric representations of the SO(4) symmetry group; however, the former come in a finite tower whereas the latter come in the well-known infinite tower of dyonic giant magnons.