Speakers
Description
We investigate resonance phenomena in kink-antikink collisions in
(1+1)-dimensional scalar field theories with higher-order polynomial
potentials. Particular attention is paid to the mechanism of energy
exchange between the translational motion of the kinks and vibrational
modes of the kink-antikink system.
Numerical simulations reveal a nontrivial dependence of the collision
outcome on the initial velocity of the kink and antikink. In addition
to kink–antikink capture and one-bounce escape, narrow multi-bounce
resonance windows are observed. Within these windows, part of the
kinetic energy of the kinks is transferred during the first collision
into vibrational excitations of the kink-antikink system and can
subsequently be transferred back into translational motion. This
allows the kink and antikink to escape after two or more collisions
for initial velocities below the critical velocity.
The structure of the resonance windows, the critical velocities, and
the spectral properties of kink-antikink configurations are analyzed.
The numerical results support the resonant energy exchange mechanism
as an explanation for the formation of the observed resonance windows.
In particular, the resonance structure can be interpreted in terms of
energy exchange between the translational motion of the kinks and
collective vibrational modes of the kink-antikink pair.
