Quantcast
  • Register
PhysicsOverflow is a next-generation academic platform for physicists and astronomers, including a community peer review system and a postgraduate-level discussion forum analogous to MathOverflow.

Welcome to PhysicsOverflow! PhysicsOverflow is an open platform for community peer review and graduate-level Physics discussion.

Please help promote PhysicsOverflow ads elsewhere if you like it.

News

PO is now at the Physics Department of Bielefeld University!

New printer friendly PO pages!

Migration to Bielefeld University was successful!

Please vote for this year's PhysicsOverflow ads!

Please do help out in categorising submissions. Submit a paper to PhysicsOverflow!

... see more

Tools for paper authors

Submit paper
Claim Paper Authorship

Tools for SE users

Search User
Reclaim SE Account
Request Account Merger
Nativise imported posts
Claim post (deleted users)
Import SE post

Users whose questions have been imported from Physics Stack Exchange, Theoretical Physics Stack Exchange, or any other Stack Exchange site are kindly requested to reclaim their account and not to register as a new user.

Public \(\beta\) tools

Report a bug with a feature
Request a new functionality
404 page design
Send feedback

Attributions

(propose a free ad)

Site Statistics

205 submissions , 163 unreviewed
5,047 questions , 2,200 unanswered
5,345 answers , 22,709 comments
1,470 users with positive rep
816 active unimported users
More ...

  Are QFT solitons expected to represent standard model particles? Or strings?

+ 6 like - 0 dislike
599 views

Is work on solitons in QFT's focused on finding solutions that could represent the fundamental particles of the Standard Model, or is the work focused on finding particles Beyond The Standard Model? If the work is primarily BTSM, is it still possible that solitons represent the SM particles?

My related question is: is there any possible relationship between solitions in N-dimensional QFT's, and string theory? Is there a possible duality in which strings are just solitions in a QFT? Or is that just silly and impossible?

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2015-04-11 10:33 (UTC), posted by SE-user user1247
asked Jan 30, 2013 in Theoretical Physics by user1247 (540 points) [ no revision ]
First of all, most of the work on solitons is formal theory - analyses of soliton solutions in QFTs that are interesting theoretically but that are known not to describe the Universe around us. Second, when one wants models of particle physics in our world, solitons typically carry "exotic" e.g. magnetic monopole charges, so they're bound to be heavy. This application of solitons is a small fraction of the soliton literature. Third, an even smaller fraction are exceptions - e.g. magnetic monopole description of quarks and leptons via the "electromagnetically dual" gauge group.

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2015-04-11 10:33 (UTC), posted by SE-user Luboš Motl
There are lots of solitons solving effective equations to string theory; D-branes are additionally "characteristic new string theory's solitons", too. There are tons of relationships between various QFT solitons and stringy solitons, between stringy solitons of 2 kinds, and so on. So generally, all the answers to the "are there" questions are Yes. Your last one is the only exception. Fundamental strings can't be solitons, almost by definition. A soliton is by definition "non-fundamental". Fundamental strings means taht everything else - incl. "solitons" - is made from them.

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2015-04-11 10:33 (UTC), posted by SE-user Luboš Motl
However, fundamental strings may become solitons constructed from other objects/fields at strong coupling (when they're no longer "fundamental" in the physical sense). In type IIB string theory, for example, fundamental F-strings are dual to D1-branes, so each may be interpreted as solitons created from fields whose elementary excitations are the other objects. But as long as one stays at the weak coupling where F-strings are "really fundamental", it's true by definition that these F-strings can't be solitons. Solitons, in general, are heavy, non-fundamental particles.

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2015-04-11 10:33 (UTC), posted by SE-user Luboš Motl

Your answer

Please use answers only to (at least partly) answer questions. To comment, discuss, or ask for clarification, leave a comment instead.
To mask links under text, please type your text, highlight it, and click the "link" button. You can then enter your link URL.
Please consult the FAQ for as to how to format your post.
This is the answer box; if you want to write a comment instead, please use the 'add comment' button.
Live preview (may slow down editor)   Preview
Your name to display (optional):
Privacy: Your email address will only be used for sending these notifications.
Anti-spam verification:
If you are a human please identify the position of the character covered by the symbol $\varnothing$ in the following word:
p$\hbar$y$\varnothing$icsOverflow
Then drag the red bullet below over the corresponding character of our banner. When you drop it there, the bullet changes to green (on slow internet connections after a few seconds).
Please complete the anti-spam verification




user contributions licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required

Your rights
...