2026/05/15 by Jacek Gatlik, Tomasz Dobrowolski, Dominika Lasa +1 · 1 voice
Physics and Astronomy · #nlin.PS #hep-ph
We investigate the propagation of fronts in an inhomogeneous medium within the framework of the φ4 model. The inhomogeneity is modeled either as an interface separating regions with different dissipation or as a finite layer with modified dissipation. The propagating front is described in two ways: as a kink solution in an effectively unbounded domain, and as a half-kink in a finite system. The half-kink represents the decay of the unstable state φ=0 toward the true vacuum. We show that while the effective description based on the kink provides accurate results, applying a similar approach to the half-kink leads to significant deviations from the predictions of the field model. We then demonstrate that a consistent description does exist and propose a modified effective model which reproduces the field-theory results over a relatively broad range of parameters.