Production of massive bosons from the decay of a massless particle beam

Abstract

Taking a two interacting scalar toy model with interaction term $g\phi\chi^2$, we study the production of $\chi$ particles coming from the decay of an asymptotic and highly occupied beam of $\phi$ particles. We perform a nonperturbative analysis coming from parametric resonant instabilities and investigate the possibility that massive $\chi$ particles are produced from decays of massless $\phi$ particles from the beam. Although this process is not present in a perturbative analysis, our nonperturbative approach allows it to happen under certain conditions. For a momentum $p$ of the beam particles and a mass $m_\chi$ of the produced ones, we find that the decay is allowed if the energy density of the beam exceeds the instability threshold $p^2 m_\chi^4/(2g^2)$. We also provide an analytical expression for the spontaneous decay rate at the earliest time.