Kink-antikink scattering-induced breathing bound states and oscillons in a parametrized φ⁴ model

Recent studies have emphasized the important role that a shape deformability of scalar-field models pertaining to the same class with the standard φ⁴ field, can play in controlling the production of a specific type of breathing bound states so-called oscillons. In the context of cosmology, the built-in mechanism of oscillons suggests that they can affect the standard picture of scalar ultra-light dark matter. In the present work kink scatterings are investigated in a parametrized model of bistable system admitting the classical φ⁴ field as an asymptotic limit, with focus on the formation of long-lived low-amplitude almost harmonic oscillations of the scalar field around a vacuum. The parametrized model is characterized by a double-well potential with a shape-deformation parameter that changes only the steepness of the potential walls, and hence the flatness of the hump of the potential barrier, leaving unaffected the two degenerate minima and the barrier height. It is found that the variation of the deformability parameter promotes several additional vibrational modes in the kink-phonon scattering potential, leading to suppression of the two-bounce windows in kink-antikink scatterings and the production of oscillons. Numerical results suggest that the anharmonicity of the potential barrier, characterized by a flat barrier hump, is the main determinant factor for the production of oscillons in double-well systems.