Propagation of self-localized Q-ball solitons in the 3He universe

Abstract

In relativistic quantum field theories, compact objects of interacting bosons can become stable owing to conservation of an additive quantum number Q. Discovering such Q balls propagating in the universe would confirm supersymmetric extensions of the standard model and may shed light on the mysteries of dark matter, but no unambiguous experimental evidence exists. We have created long-lived Q-ball solitons in superfluid He3, where the role of the Q ball is played by a Bose-Einstein condensate of magnon quasiparticles. The principal qualitative attribute of a Q ball is observed experimentally: its propagation in space together with the self-created potential trap. Additionally, we show that this system allows for a quantitatively accurate representation of the Q-ball Hamiltonian. Our Q ball belongs to the class of the Friedberg-Lee-Sirlin Q balls with an additional neutral field ζ, which is provided by the orbital part of the Nambu-Goldstone mode. Multiple Q balls can be created in the experiment, and we have observed collisions between them. This set of features makes the magnon condensates in superfluid 3He a versatile platform for studies of Q-ball dynamics and interactions in three spatial dimensions.