Collision Dynamics of False-Vacuum Oscillons

Abstract

We study the collision dynamics of localized oscillons in two classes of $(1+1)$-dimensional scalar field theories with metastable false vacua, a normal class with a positive quartic self-interaction term and an inverted class with a negative quartic term. We construct small-amplitude oscillon solutions around the false vacuum using the Fodor {\emph{et al.}} expansion, and show that the force between oscillons decays exponentially at large separation, with a strength modulated by their relative phase. Numerical simulations of two-oscillon collisions exhibit reflection, crossing, and formation of excited oscillons. Resonance windows occur, similar to those found in kink-antikink collisions. In the normal theory, if the oscillons have sufficient energy, the field can pass over a sphaleron barrier and evolve into a kink-antikink pair, initiating a phase transition to the true vacuum. We also simulate the collision of oscillons evolved from a slightly perturbed sphaleron.