Related papers: Empirical constraints on vacuum decay in the strin…
It is shown that in the cosmological models based on a vacuum energy decaying as a^{-2}, where a is the scale factor of the universe, the fate of the universe in regard to whether it will collapse in future or expand forever is determined…
We study the spectrum of loops as a part of a complete network of cosmic strings in flat spacetime. After a long transient regime, characterized by production of small loops at the scale of the initial conditions, it appears that a true…
Motivated by the mounting evidence for dark energy, here we explore the consequences of a fundamental cosmological constant $\Lambda$ for our universe. We show that when the gravitational entropy of a pure DeSitter state ultimately wins…
We find a one-parameter family of long-lived physical string states in type II superstring theory. We compute the decay rate by an exact numerical evaluation of the imaginary part of the one-loop propagator. Remarkably, the lifetime rapidly…
We argue that, for generic string compactifications, dark energy is likely to signal the beginning of the end of our universe, perhaps even through decompactification, with possible implications for the cosmological coincidence problem.…
The picture of the "multiverse" arising in diverse cosmological scenarios involves transitions between metastable vacuum states. It was pointed out by Krauss and Dent that the transition rates decrease at very late times, leading to a…
The cosmological constant, i.e., the energy density stored in the true vacuum state of all existing fields in the Universe, is the simplest and the most natural possibility to describe the current cosmic acceleration. However, despite its…
False vacuum decay in field theory may be formulated as a boundary value problem in Euclidean space. In a previous work, we studied its solution in single scalar field theories with quadratic gravity and used it to find obstructions to…
In a recent model of dark energy (with several phenomenological consequences), the universe is assumed to be trapped in a false vacuum with an energy density of the order of (10^{-3} eV)^4, mimicking the presently successful $\Lambda CDM$…
In a classically scale-invariant quantum field theory, tunneling rates are infrared divergent due to the existence of instantons of any size. While one expects such divergences to be resolved by quantum effects, it has been unclear how…
Future direct observations of the Cosmic Neutrino Background (C$\nu$B) have the potential to explore a neutrino lifetime, especially in the region of the age of the universe, $t_0=4.35\times 10^{17}\ {\rm s}$. We forecast constraints on…
The observed late-time acceleration of the Universe may be the result of unknown physical processes involving either modifications of gravitation theory or the existence of new fields in high energy physics. In the former case, such…
We investigate the cosmological consequences of particle physics theories that admit stable loops of superconducting cosmic string - {\it vortons}. General symmetry breaking schemes are considered, in which strings are formed at one energy…
In this talk, we discuss the possibility that the vacuum is dynamically determined in the history of the universe. The point is that some of the bubbles with a certain vacuum shrink by the evolution of the universe via gravity and may…
Quantum information is typically fragile under measurements and environmental coupling. Remarkably, we find that its lifetime can scale exponentially with system size when the environment is continuously monitored via mid-circuit…
Is field space infinite? If not, it either loops back on itself or ends altogether. Periodic boundary conditions are of course familiar, but field space endpoints--which appear in real-world systems--are far less explored. In this paper we…
Recently it was argued that proton lifetime limits impose that the scale of quantum gravity must be above 10^{16} GeV. By studying the proton stability in the context of realistic heterotic-string models, I propose that proton longevity…
String tension fundamentally determines the properties of strings; yet its value is often assigned arbitrarily, creating a fine-tuning problem. We describe a mechanism for dynamically generating string tension in a flat or almost flat…
There is mounting observational evidence that the expansion of our Universe is undergoing a late-time acceleration. Among many proposals to describe this phenomenon, the cosmological constant seems to be the simplest and the most natural…
In this paper we study the description of the Universe based on the low energy superstring theory modified by the Loop Quantum Gravity effects.This approach was proposed by De Risi et al. in the Phys. Rev. D {\bf 76} (2007) 103531. We show…