Kink-kink and kink-antikink interactions with long-range tails

Abstract

In this Letter, we address the {long-range interaction} between kinks and antikinks, as well as kinks and kinks, in $\varphi^{2n+4}$ field theories for $n>1$. The kink-antikink interaction is generically attractive, while the kink-kink interaction is generically repulsive. We find that the force of interaction decays with the $(\frac{2n}{n-1})$th power of their separation, and we identify the general prefactor for {\it arbitrary} $n$. Importantly, we test the resulting mathematical prediction with detailed numerical simulations of the dynamic field equation, and obtain good agreement between theory and numerics for the cases of $n=2$ ($\varphi^8$ model), $n=3$ ($\varphi^{10}$ model) and $n=4$ ($\varphi^{12}$ model).