Perturbations against a Q-ball: Charge, energy, and additivity property

Abstract

In the present paper, perturbations against a Q-ball solution are considered. It is shown that if we calculate the U(1) charge and the energy of the modes, which are solutions to linearized equations of motion, up to the second order in perturbations, we will get incorrect results. In particular, for the time-dependent modes we will obtain nonzero terms, which explicitly depend on time, indicating the nonconservation over time of the charge and the energy. It is shown that, as expected, this problem can be resolved by considering nonlinear equations of motion for the perturbations, providing second-order corrections to the solutions of linearized equations of motion. It turns out that contributions of these corrections to the charge and the energy can be taken into account without solving explicitly the nonlinear equations of motion for the perturbations. It is also shown that the use of such nonlinear equations not only recovers the conservation over time of the charge and the energy but also results in the additivity of the charge and the energy of different modes forming the perturbation.