Quantum corrections to Q-balls

We extend calculational techniques for static solitons to the case of field configurations with simple time dependence in order to consider quantum effects on the stability of Q-balls. These non-topological solitons exist classically for any fixed value of an unbroken global charge Q. We show that one-loop quantum effects can destabilize very small Q-balls. We show how the properties of the soliton are reflected in the associated scattering problem, and find that a good approximation to the full one-loop quantum energy of a Q-ball is given by omega - E-0, where omega is the frequency of the classical soliton's time dependence, and E-0 is the energy of the lowest bound state in the associated scattering problem. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.