sine-Gordon Kinks Research Articles

On codimension one stability of the soliton for the 1D focusing cubic Klein-Gordon equation

We consider the codimension one asymptotic stability problem for the soliton of the focusing cubic Klein-Gordon equation on the line under even perturbations. The main obstruction to full asymptotic stability on the center-stable manifold is a small divisor in a quadratic source term of the perturbation equation. This singularity is due to the threshold resonance of the linearized operator and the absence of null structure in the nonlinearity. The threshold resonance of the linearized operator produces a one-dimensional space of slowly decaying Klein-Gordon waves, relative to local norms. In contrast, the closely related perturbation equation for the sine-Gordon kink does exhibit null structure, which makes the corresponding quadratic source term amenable to normal forms (see Lührmann and Schlag [Duke Math. J. 172 (2023), pp. 2715–2820]). The main result of this work establishes decay estimates up to exponential time scales for small “codimension one type” perturbations of the soliton of the focusing cubic Klein-Gordon equation. The proof is based upon a super-symmetric approach to the study of modified scattering for 1D nonlinear Klein-Gordon equations with Pöschl-Teller potentials from Lührmann and Schlag [Duke Math. J. 172 (2023), pp. 2715–2820], and an implementation of a version of an adapted functional framework introduced by Germain and Pusateri [Forum Math. Pi 10 (2022), p. 172].

Kink solutions in generalized 2D dilaton gravity

We study static kink solutions in a generalized two-dimensional dilaton gravity model, where the kinetic term of the dilaton is generalized to be an arbitrary function of the canonical one X=−12(∇φ)2, say F(X), and the kink is generated by a canonical scalar matter field ϕ. It is found that for arbitrary F(X), the background field equations have a simple first-order formalism, and the linear perturbation equation can always be written as a Schrödinger-like equation with factorizable Hamiltonian operator. After choosing appropriate F(X) and superpotential, we obtain a sine-Gordon type kink solution with pure AdS2 metric. The linear perturbation issue of this solution becomes an exactly solvable conformal quantum mechanics problem, if one of the model parameter takes a critical value.

Asymptotic stability of the sine-Gordon kink under odd perturbations

Asymptotic stability of the sine-Gordon kink under odd perturbations

Kink-inhomogeneity interaction in the sine-Gordon model.

In the present study the interaction of a sine-Gordon kink with a localized inhomogeneity is considered. In the absence of dissipation, the inhomogeneity considered is found to impose a potential energy barrier. The motion of the kink for near-critical values of velocities separating transmission from barrier reflection is studied. Moreover, the existence and stability properties of the kink at the relevant saddle point are examined and its dynamics is found to be accurately captured by effective low-dimensional models. In the case where there is dissipation in the system, below the threshold value of the current, a stable kink is found to exist in the immediate vicinity of the barrier. The effective particle motion of the kink is investigated obtaining very good agreement with the result of the original field model. Both one and two degree-of-freedom settings are examined with the latter being more efficient than the former in capturing the details of the kink motion.

On Asymptotic Stability of the Sine-Gordon Kink in the Energy Space

We consider the sine-Gordon (SG) equation in 1+1 dimensions. The kink is a static, non symmetric exact solution to SG, stable in the energy space H^1times L^2. It is well-known that the linearized operator around the kink has a simple kernel and no internal modes. However, it possesses an odd resonance at the bottom of the continuum spectrum, deeply related to the existence of the (in)famous wobbling kink, an explicit periodic-in-time solution of SG around the kink that contradicts the asymptotic stability of the kink in the energy space. In this paper we further investigate the influence of resonances in the asymptotic stability question. We also discuss the relationship between breathers, wobbling kinks and resonances in the SG setting. By gathering Bäcklund transformations (BT) as in Hoffman and Wayne (Differ Int Equ 26(3–4):303–320, 2013), Muñoz and Palacios (Ann. IHP C Analyse Nonlinéaire 36(4):977–1034, 2019) and Virial estimates around odd perturbations of the vacuum solution, in the spirit of Kowalczyk et al. (Lett Math Phys 107(5):921–931, 2017), we first identify the manifold of initial data around zero under which BTs are related to the wobbling kink solution. It turns out that (even) small breathers are deeply related to odd perturbations around the kink, including the wobbling kink itself. As a consequence of this result and Kowalczyk et al. (Lett Math Phys 107(5):921–931, 2017), using BTs we can construct a smooth manifold of initial data close to the kink, for which there is asymptotic stability in the energy space. The initial data has spatial symmetry of the form (kink + odd, even), non resonant in principle, and not preserved by the flow. This asymptotic stability property holds despite the existence of wobbling kinks in SG. We also show that wobbling kinks are orbitally stable under odd data, and clarify some interesting connections between SG and phi ^4 at the level of linear Bäcklund transformations.

Singular Pöschl-Teller II potentials and gravitating kinks

We report a two-dimensional (2D) gravitating kink model, for which both the background field equations and the linear perturbation equation are exactly solvable. The background solution describes a sine-Gordon kink that interpolating between two asymptotic AdS2 spaces, and can be regarded as a 2D thick brane world solution. The linear perturbation equation can be recasted into a Schrödinger-like equation with singular Pöschl-Teller II potentials. There is no tachyonic state in the spectrum, so the solution is stable against the linear perturbations. Besides, there can be n = 0, 1, 2,⋯ bounded vibrational modes around the kink. The number of these vibrational modes varies with model parameters.

Remarks on sine-Gordon kink–fermion system: localized modes and scattering

We study numerically the kink–fermion interactions in a 1 + 1 dimensional toy model, which describes sine-Gordon kinks coupled to the massless Dirac fermions with backreaction. We show that the spectrum of fermionic modes strongly depends on the choice of the coupling, in particular, there are no localized modes for a minimal Yukawa coupling. We analyze the scattering of the fermionic packet by the kink. We demonstrate that the outcome of the collision dynamically depends on the phase of the incoming fermion packet, it results in alternating regimes of positive and negative acceleration of the kink.

Scattering of fermionic isodoublets on the sine-Gordon kink

The scattering of Dirac fermions on the sine-Gordon kink is studied both analytically and numerically. To achieve invariance with respect to a discrete symmetry, the sine-Gordon model is treated as a nonlinear sigma -model with a circular target space that interacts with fermionic isodublets through the Yukawa interaction. It is shown that the diagonal and antidiagonal parts of the fermionic wave function interact independently with the external field of the sine-Gordon kink. The wave functions of the fermionic scattering states are expressed in terms of the Heun functions. General expressions for the transmission and reflection coefficients are derived, and their dependences on the fermion momentum and mass are studied numerically. The existence condition is found for two fermionic zero modes, and their analytical expressions are obtained. It is shown that the zero modes do not lead to fragmentation of the fermionic charge, but can lead to polarization of the fermionic vacuum. The scattering of the diagonal and antidiagonal fermionic states is found to be significantly different; this difference is shown to be due to the different dependences of the energy levels of these bound states on the fermion mass, and is in accordance with Levinson’s theorem.

Generation of wave packets and breathers by oscillating kinks in the sine-Gordon system

Evolution of the nonequilibrium inhomogeneities and topological defects is studied in terms of complex kink solutions of the sine–Gordon equation. The weakly damped oscillation of the sine–Gordon kink, named as the kink quasimode, is described explicitly. It is shown that the oscillatory kink behavior and the wave packet generation depend significantly on the initial nonequilibrium kink profile. In order to specify conditions of the generation of wobbling kinks with a multibreather structure we reformulate the direct scattering problem associated with the sine-Gordon equation as the spectral problem of the Schrödinger operator. We obtain the dependence of the radiation energy, which is emitted during formation of the multi-frequency wobbling kink, on the effective dimension of its initial profile.

Self-gravitating kinks in two-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian universes

Two-dimensional scalar field theories with spontaneous symmetry breaking subject to the action of Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity are studied. Solutions for the $\phi^4$ and sine-Gordon self-gravitating kinks are presented, both for general gravitational coupling and in the perturbative regime. The analysis is extended to deal with a hierarchy of kinks related to transparent P\"{o}schl-Teller potentials

Helium diffusion as sine-Gordon kink in disordered quartz structure

Discrete model (local chains approach) reveals the influence of heterogeneity of structure on the movement of a helium atom in the form of a soliton Frenkel-Kontorova. The transition to the field form of this equation - to the Klein-Fock-Gordon equation or, simply, to the sine-Gordon equation, allows us to calculate the diffusion coefficient of such a soliton, taking into account the collective nature of the movement of the atom and the accompanying reversible displacements of the atoms of the environment through the medium in the form of a soliton and taking into account the details of the structure of nanostructures.

Scattering of the double sine-Gordon kinks

We study the scattering of kink and antikink of the double sine-Gordon model. There is a critical value of the initial velocity v_{{mathrm {cr}}} of the colliding kinks, which separates different regimes of the collision. At v_{mathrm {in}}>v_{mathrm {cr}} we observe kinks reflection, while at v_{mathrm {in}}<v_{mathrm {cr}} their interaction is complicated with capture and escape windows. We obtain the dependence of v_{mathrm {cr}} on the parameter of the model. This dependence possesses a series of local maxima, which has not been reported by other authors. At some initial velocities below the critical value we observe a new phenomenon – the escape of two oscillons in the final state. Besides that, at v_{mathrm {in}}<v_{mathrm {cr}} we found the initial kinks’ velocities at which the oscillons do not escape, and the final configuration looks like a bound state of two oscillons.

Control of the extension–flexion cycle of human knees during bicycle riding by a synergy of solitary muscular excitations and contractions

A Hill-type model is proposed for the extension-flexion cycle of human knees during bicycle riding. The extension-flexion cycle is controlled by a synergy of muscular excitations and contractions of the knee musculature. Muscular action potentials are modeled by Sine-Gordon kinks, while titin-influenced actomyosin contractionsare modeled by Korteweg-de Vries solitons. As an application, the total knee arthroplasty is discussed.

Kink ratchet induced by a time-dependent symmetric field potential.

The ratchet effect of a sine-Gordon kink is investigated in the absence of any external force while the symmetry of the field potential at every time instant is maintained. The directed motion appears by a time shift of the sine-Gordon potential through a time-dependent additional phase. A symmetry analysis provides the necessary conditions for the existence of net motion. It is also shown analytically, by using a collective coordinate theory, that the novel physical mechanism responsible for the appearance of the ratchet effect is the coupled dynamics of the kink width with the background field. Biharmonic and dichotomic periodic variations of the additional phase of the sine-Gordon potential are considered. The predictions established by the symmetry analysis and the collective coordinate theory are verified by means of numerical simulations. Inversion and maximization of the resulting current as a function of the system parameters are investigated.

Kink scattering from a parity-time-symmetric defect in the ϕ4 model

In this paper, we study the ϕ4 kink scattering from a spatially localized PT-symmetric defect and the effect of the kink’s internal mode (IM) is discussed. It is demonstrated that if a kink hits the defect from the gain side, a noticeable IM is excited, while for the kink coming from the opposite direction the mode excitation is much weaker. This asymmetry is a principal finding of the present work. Similar to the case of the sine-Gordon kink studied earlier, it is found that the ϕ4 kink approaching the defect from the gain side always passes through the defect, while in the opposite case it must have sufficiently large initial velocity, otherwise it is trapped by the loss region. It is found that for the kink with IM the critical velocity is smaller, meaning that the kink bearing IM can pass more easily through the loss region. This feature, namely the “increased transparency” of the defect as regards the motion of the kink in the presence of IM is the second key finding of the present work. A two degree of freedom collective variable model offered recently by one of the co-authors is shown to be capable of reproducing both principal findings of the present work. A simpler, analytically tractable single degree of freedom collective variable method is used to calculate analytically the kink phase shift and the kink critical velocity sufficient to pass through the defect. Comparison with the numerical results suggests that the collective variable method is able to predict these parameters with a high accuracy.

Domain wall network as QCD vacuum and the chromomagnetic trap formation under extreme conditions

The ensemble of Euclidean gluon field configurations represented by the domain wall network is considered. A single domain wall is given by the sine-Gordon kink for the angle between chromomagnetic and chromoelectric components of the gauge field. The domain wall separates the regions with self-dual and anti-self-dual fields. The network of the domain wall defects is introduced as a combination of multiplicative and additive superpositions of kinks. The character of the spectrum and eigenmodes of color-charged fluctuations in the presence of the domain wall network is discussed. The concept of the confinement-deconfinement transition in terms of the ensemble of domain wall networks is outlined. Conditions for the formation of thick domain wall junction during heavy ion collisions are discussed, and the spectrum of color charged quasiparticles inside the trap is evaluated. An important observation is the existence of the critical size $L_c$ of the trap stable against gluon tachyonic modes, which means that deconfinement can occur only in a finite region of space-time in principle. The size $L_c$ is related to the value of gluon condensate $\langle g^2F^2\rangle$.

Interaction of sine-Gordon kinks and breathers with a parity-time-symmetric defect.

The scattering of kinks and low-frequency breathers of the nonlinear sine-Gordon (SG) equation on a spatially localized parity-time-symmetric perturbation (defect) with a balanced gain and loss is investigated numerically. It is demonstrated that if a kink passes the defect, it always restores its initial momentum and energy, and the only effect of the interaction with the defect is a phase shift of the kink. A kink approaching the defect from the gain side always passes, while in the opposite case it must have sufficiently large initial momentum to pass through the defect instead of being trapped in the loss region. The kink phase shift and critical velocity are calculated by means of the collective variable method. Kink-kink (kink-antikink) collisions at the defect are also briefly considered, showing how their pairwise repulsive (respectively, attractive) interaction can modify the collisional outcome of a single kink within the pair with the defect. For the breather, the result of its interaction with the defect depends strongly on the breather parameters (velocity, frequency, and initial phase) and on the defect parameters. The breather can gain some energy from the defect and as a result potentially even split into a kink-antikink pair, or it can lose a part of its energy. Interestingly, the breather translational mode is very weakly affected by the dissipative perturbation, so that a breather penetrates more easily through the defect when it comes from the lossy side, than a kink. In all studied soliton-defect interactions, the energy loss to radiation of small-amplitude extended waves is negligible.

Incarnations of Skyrmions

Skyrmions can be transformed into lumps or baby-Skyrmions by being trapped inside a domain wall. Here we find that they can also be transformed into sine-Gordon kinks when confined by vortices, resulting in confined Skyrmions. We show this both by an effective field theory approach and by direct numerical calculations. The existence of these trapped and confined Skyrmions does not rely on higher-derivative terms when the host solitons are flat or straight. We also construct a Skyrmion as a twisted vortex ring in a model with a sixth-order derivative term.

Incarnations of instantons

Yang–Mills instantons in a pure Yang–Mills theory in four Euclidean space can be promoted to particle-like topological solitons in d=4+1 dimensional space–time. When coupled to Higgs fields, they transform themselves in the Higgs phase into Skyrmions, lumps and sine-Gordon kinks, when trapped inside a non-Abelian domain wall, non-Abelian vortex and monopole string, respectively. Here, we point out that a closed monopole string, non-Abelian vortex sheet and non-Abelian domain wall in S1, S2 and S3 shapes, respectively, are all Yang–Mills instantons if their S1, S2 and S3 moduli, respectively, are twisted along their world-volumes.

Torus knots as Hopfions

We present a direct connection between torus knots and Hopfions by finding stable and static solutions of the extended Faddeev–Skyrme model with a ferromagnetic potential term. (P,Q)-torus knots consisting of |Q| sine-Gordon kink strings twisted P/Q times into the poloidal cycle along the toroidal cycle on a toroidal domain wall carry the Hopf charge PQ, which demonstrates that Hopfions can be further classified according to torus knot type.