 | This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. (May 2019) |
In theoretical physics, Q-ball is a type of non-topological soliton. A soliton is a localized field configuration that is stable—it cannot spread out and dissipate. In the case of a non-topological soliton, the stability is guaranteed by a conserved charge: the soliton has lower energy per unit charge than any other configuration. (In physics, charge is often represented by the letter "Q", and the soliton is spherically symmetric, hence the name.)