The dynamics of Affleck-Dine condensate collapse

In the MSSM, cosmological scalar field condensates formed along flat directions of the scalar potential (Affleck-Dine condensates) are typically unstable with respect to formation of Q-balls, a type of non-topological soliton. We consider the dynamical evolution of the Affleck-Dine condensate in the MSSM. We discuss the creation and linear growth, in F- and D-term inflation models, of the quantum seed perturbations which in the non-linear regime catalyse the collapse of the condensate to non-topological soliton lumps. We study numerically the evolution of the collapsing condensate lumps and show that the solitons initially formed are not in general Q-balls, but Q-axitons, a pseudo-breather which can have very different properties from Q-balls of the same charge. We calculate the energy and charge radiated from st spherically symmetric condensate lump as it evolves into a Q-axiton. We also discuss the implications for baryogenesis and dark matter. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B,V. All rights reserved.