Exact solutions of classical scalar field equations

Abstract

We give a class of exact solutions of quartic scalar field theories. These solutions prove to be interesting as are characterized by the production of mass contributions arising from the nonlinear terms while maintaining a wave-like behavior. So, a quartic massless equation has a nonlinear wave solution with a dispersion relation of a massive wave and a quartic scalar theory gets its mass term renormalized in the dispersion relation through a term depending on the coupling and an integration constant. When spontaneous breaking of symmetry is considered, such wave-like solutions show how a mass term with the wrong sign and the nonlinearity give rise to a proper dispersion relation. These latter solutions do not change the sign maintaining the property of the selected value of the equilibrium state. Then, we use these solutions to obtain a quantum field theory for the case of a quartic massless field. We get the propagator from a first-order correction showing that is consistent in the limit of a very large coupling. The spectrum of a massless quartic scalar field theory is then provided. From this we can conclude that, for an infinite countable number of exact classical solutions, there exist an infinite number of equivalent quantum field theories that are trivial in the limit of the coupling going to infinity. © 2011 The Author(s).