Kink Dynamics in a Parametric $\phi^6$ System: A Model With Controllably Many Internal Modes

Abstract

We explore a variant of the $\phi^6$ model originally proposed in Phys.\ Rev.\ D {\bf 12}, 1606 (1975) as a prototypical, so-called, "bag" model in which domain walls play the role of quarks within hadrons. We examine the steady state of the model, namely an apparent bound state of two kink structures. We explore its linearization, and we find that, as a function of a parameter controlling the curvature of the potential, an {\it effectively arbitrary} number of internal modes may arise in the point spectrum of the linearization about the domain wall profile. We explore some of the key characteristics of kink-antikink collisions, such as the critical velocity and the multi-bounce windows, and how they depend on the principal parameter of the model. We find that the critical velocity exhibits a non-monotonic dependence on the parameter controlling the curvature of the potential. For the multi-bounce windows, we find that their range and complexity decrease as the relevant parameter decreases (and as the number of internal modes in the model increases). We use a modified collective coordinates method [in the spirit of recent works such as {Phys.\ Rev.\ D} {\bf 94}, 085008 (2016)] in order to capture the relevant phenomenology in a semi-analytical manner.