Kinks bounded by fermions

Abstract

We present and study new mechanism of interaction between the solitons based on the exchange interaction mediated by the localized fermion states. As particular examples, we consider solutions of simple 1+1 dimensional scalar field theories with self-interaction potentials, including sine-Gordon model and the polynomial $\phi^4$, $\phi^6$ models, coupled to the Dirac fermions with back-reaction. We discover that there is an additional fermion exchange interaction between the solitons, it leads to the formation of static multi-soliton bound states. Further, we argue that similar mechanisms of formation of stable coupled multi-soliton configurations can be observed for a wide class of physical systems.