Kink-Antikink Scattering in \phi^4 and \phi^6 Models

Abstract

For kink-antikink scattering within the \phi^4 non--linear field theory in one space and one time dimension resonance type configurations emerge when the relative velocity between kink and antikink falls below a critical value. It has been conjectured that the vibrational excitation of the kink would be the source for these resonances because (simplified) collective coordinate calculations, that emphasized on this excitation, qualitatively reproduced those resonances. Surprisingly a numerical study in the \phi^6 field theory also exhibited such resonances even though it does not contain the vibrational excitation. To explore this contradiction we start from the working hypothesis that in either model any collective coordinate ansatz which includes a degree of freedom similar to the vibrational excitation leads to resonances, regardless of whether or not this mode emerges as a solution to the (linearized) field equations. To this end we compare numerical results in the \phi^4 and \phi^6 models that arise from the full set of partial differential equations to those from the ordinary differential equations for a collective coordinate ansatz. An inaccuracy in literature formulas for the collective coordinate approach in the \phi^4 model requires to revisit those calculations.