Dynamics of Biased Domain Walls: The Rocket Effect

Abstract

We investigate the dynamics of domain walls in scalar field theories with degenerate vacua (i.e., vacua of equal energy density) in which the scalar field mass depends on the vacuum state. Using analytical arguments and numerical simulations, we show that this vacuum dependence of the scalar field mass renders the emission of scalar radiation from domain walls anisotropic, preferentially toward regions with smaller scalar field mass. We further show that the resulting recoil (rocket) effect biases the evolution of cosmological domain wall networks in favor of the lower-mass vacuum, thereby promoting network decay. We also demonstrate that the biased evolution of domain walls in theories with degenerate vacua, previously attributed to asymmetries of the potential barrier near the local maximum, is instead primarily controlled by the vacuum dependence of the scalar field mass. More generally, in theories with non-degenerate vacua, this recoil mechanism constitutes an additional source of dynamical bias that can either hasten or delay network decay relative to the standard expectation based solely on differences in vacuum energy density.

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BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@misc{vilhena2026dynamics,
  title = {{Dynamics of Biased Domain Walls: The Rocket Effect}},
  author = {R. B. Vilhena and P. P. Avelino and C. dos Santos},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2607.09432},
  eprint = {2607.09432},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.09432},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Dynamics of Biased Domain Walls: The Rocket Effect
AU  - R. B. Vilhena
AU  - P. P. Avelino
AU  - C. dos Santos
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/23
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2607.09432
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.09432
AB  - We investigate the dynamics of domain walls in scalar field theories with degenerate vacua (i.e., vacua of equal energy density) in which the scalar field mass depends on the vacuum state. Using analytical arguments and numerical simulations, we show that this vacuum dependence of the scalar field mass renders the emission of scalar radiation from domain walls anisotropic, preferentially toward regions with smaller scalar field mass. We further show that the resulting recoil (rocket) effect biases the evolution of cosmological domain wall networks in favor of the lower-mass vacuum, thereby promoting network decay. We also demonstrate that the biased evolution of domain walls in theories with degenerate vacua, previously attributed to asymmetries of the potential barrier near the local maximum, is instead primarily controlled by the vacuum dependence of the scalar field mass. More generally, in theories with non-degenerate vacua, this recoil mechanism constitutes an additional source of dynamical bias that can either hasten or delay network decay relative to the standard expectation based solely on differences in vacuum energy density.
ER  -

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