Spatially extended relativistic particles associated with multi-soliton solutions of the Sine-Gordon equation in more than one space dimension

Abstract: Contrary to the decades-old understanding, SGn, the Sine-Gordon equation in (1+n) dimensions, has N-soliton solutions for any N >= 1, not only for n = 1, but also for n = 2 and 3. While SG1 solitons are confined to a line, SG2- and SG3-solitons are confined to a plane. An SG2-soliton solution moves rigidly with a constant velocity in the plane, and an SG3-solution moves rigidly with a constant velocity in the plane, and along the normal to the plane. A conservation law for the current density, obeyed by the single-SGn-soliton solution, is violated by all multi-soliton solutions. The violation manifests itself by generating vertices, structures that are localized around the soliton collision regions and decay exponentially in all directions in the (1+n)-dimensional space. In (1+1) dimensions, vertices evolve and then decay. In (1+2) and (1+3) dimensions, they move with the whole solution at its constant velocity, preserving their profiles, thereby emulating free, spatially extended, relativistic particles and bound states of such particles.