Informal Pizza Seminar

Metastable kinks in the orbifold

Manuel Toharia

University of Maryland & Syracuse University

We consider static configurations of bulk scalar fields in 5D orbifolded extra dimensional models. There exist a finite number of such configurations verifying Dirichlet boundary conditions, with total number depending on the size of the orbifold interval. A simple Sturm-liouville stability analysis demonstrates that all static configurations with nodes in the interval are unstable. I will then present a powerful general criterion with which to determine which of the nodeless solutions are stable. When many classically stable configurations are possible, one needs to determine which has the lowest energy. This depends on the size of the orbifold interval.