4-8 July 2016
Kramer Law building
Africa/Johannesburg timezone
<a href="http://events.saip.org.za/internalPage.py?pageId=10&confId=86">The Proceedings of SAIP2016</a> published on 24 December 2017

Quantum Corrections to the Kink-Antikink Potential

5 Jul 2016, 10:20
20m
4A (Kramer Law building)

4A

Kramer Law building

UCT Middle Campus Cape Town
Oral Presentation Track G - Theoretical and Computational Physics Theoretical and Computational Physics (1)

Speaker

Mr Zander Lee (Stellenbosch University)

Apply to be<br> considered for a student <br> &nbsp; award (Yes / No)?

Yes

Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)?

Yes

Level for award<br>&nbsp;(Hons, MSc, <br> &nbsp; PhD, N/A)?

MSc

Main supervisor (name and email)<br>and his / her institution

Prof. Herbert Weigel, weigel@sun.ac.za, Stellenbosch University

Abstract content <br> &nbsp; (Max 300 words)<br><a href="http://events.saip.org.za/getFile.py/access?resId=0&materialId=0&confId=34" target="_blank">Formatting &<br>Special chars</a>

In field theory vacuum polarization effects may significantly alter classical predictions for non-perturbative configurations. This is particularly the case when comparing the vacuum polarization energy (VPE) of different topological sectors that represent different particle numbers. For this reason we calculate the VPE of the kink-antikink interaction in models with one time and one space dimension. We compute the VPE from the spectral method. This approach makes heavy use of scattering data for fluctuations around the non-perturbative background configuration. In a first step we compare our numerical results for the (anti)kink background in the φ4 and sine-Gordon models to analytical results from the literature. In the next step the VPE is computed for backgrounds that have a kink and antikink at a certain separation. Since each calculation is done at a fixed separation, we must exclude quantum fluctuations from modes which correspond to the variation of this separation. This enforces an orthogonality constraint in the symmetric channel. Ultimately, the first order quantum correction to the kink-antikink potential is extracted from the calculation of the VPE.

Please indicate whether<br>this abstract may be<br>published online<br>(Yes / No)

Yes

Primary author

Mr Zander Lee (Stellenbosch University)

Co-author

Prof. Herbert Weigel (Physics Department Stellenbosch University)

Presentation Materials

Peer reviewing

Paper