We consider localized soliton-like solutions in the presence of a stable scalar condensate background. By the analogy with classical mechanics, it can be shown that there may exist solutions of the nonlinear equations of motion that describe dips or rises in the spatially-uniform charge distribution. We also present explicit analytical solutions for some of such objects and examine their properties.
We explore equilibrium solutions of non-topological solitons in a general class of scalar field theories which include global U(1) symmetry. We find new types of solutions, tube-shaped and crust-shaped objects, and investigate their stability. Like Q-balls, the new solitons can exist in supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model, which may responsible for baryon asymmetry and dark matter. Therefore, observational signals of the new solitons would give us more informations on the early universe and supersymmetric theories.
We develop a primordial black hole (PBH) production mechanism, deriving non-Gaussian tails from interacting quantum fields during early universe inflation. The multi-field potential landscape may contain relatively flat directions, as a result of energetically favorable adjustments of fields coupled to the inflaton. Such additional fields do not contribute to CMB fluctuations given a sufficient large-scale decay, related to a gap in the critical exponents computed using stochastic methods. Along such directions transverse to the inflaton, the field makes rare jumps to large values. Mixing with the inflaton leads to a substantial tail in the resulting probability distribution for the primordial perturbations. Incorporating a large number of flavors of fields ensures theoretical control of radiative corrections and a substantial abundance. This generates significant PBH production for a reasonable window of parameters, with the mass range determined by the time period of mixing and the inflationary Hubble scale. We analyze a particular model in detail, and then comment on a broader family of models in this class which suggests a mechanism for primordial seeds for early super-massive black holes in the universe. Along the way, we encounter an analytically tractable example of stochastic dynamics and provide some representative calculations of its correlations and probability distributions.
Eternally inflating universes lead to an infinite number of Boltzmann brains but also an infinite number of ordinary observers. If we use the scale factor measure to regularize these infinities, the ordinary observers dominate the Boltzmann brains if the vacuum decay rate of each vacuum is larger than its Boltzmann brain nucleation rate. Here we point out that nucleation of small black holes should be counted in the vacuum decay rate, and this rate is always larger than the Boltzmann brain rate, if the minimum Boltzmann brain mass is more than the Planck mass. We also discuss nucleation of small, rapidly inflating regions, which may also have a higher rate than Boltzmann brains. This process also affects the distribution of the different vacua in eternal inflation.
We derive the quadratic action for the physical degrees of freedom of massless spin-0, spin-1, and spin-2 perturbations on a Schwarzschild--(A)dS background in arbitrary dimensions. We then use these results to compute the static response of asymptotically flat Schwarzschild black holes to external fields. Our analysis reproduces known facts about black hole Love numbers, in particular that they vanish for all types of perturbation in four spacetime dimensions, but also leads to new results. For instance, we find that neutral Schwarzschild black holes polarize in the presence of an electromagnetic background in any number of spacetime dimensions except four. Moreover, we calculate for the first time black hole Love numbers for vector-type gravitational perturbations in higher dimensions and find that they generically do not vanish. Along the way, we shed some light on an apparent discrepancy between previous results in the literature, and clarify some aspects of the matching between perturbative calculations of static response on a Schwarzschild background and the point-particle effective theory
While no-hair theorems forbid isolated black holes from possessing permanent moments beyond their mass, electric charge, and angular momentum, research over the past two decades has demonstrated that a black hole interacting with a time-dependent background scalar field will gain an induced scalar charge. In this paper, we study this phenomenon from an effective field theory (EFT) perspective. We employ a novel approach to constructing the effective point-particle action for the black hole by integrating out a set of composite operators localized on its worldline. This procedure, carried out using the in-in formalism, enables a systematic accounting of both conservative and dissipative effects associated with the black holes horizon at the level of the action. We show that the induced scalar charge is inextricably linked to accretion of the background environment, as both effects stem from the same parent term in the effective action. The charge, in turn, implies that a black hole can radiate scalar waves and will also experience a fifth force. Our EFT correctly reproduces known results in the literature for massless scalars, but now also generalizes to massive real scalar fields, allowing us to consider a wider range of scenarios of astrophysical interest. As an example, we use our EFT to study the early inspiral of a black hole binary embedded in a fuzzy dark matter halo.