Related papers: Metastable Domains of the Landscape
We discover that some unstable vacua have long memory. By that we mean that even in the theories containing only massive particles, there are correllators and expectation values which grow with time. We examine the cases of instabilities…
The thermodynamic equilibrium conditions for compact structures composed by mass varying particles are discussed assuming that the so-called dynamical mass behaves like an additional extensive thermodynamic degree of freedom. It then…
Unstable particles decay sooner or later, so they are not described by asymptotic one-particle states and they should not be included as independent states in unitarity relations such as the optical theorem. The same applies to any…
We investigate the possibility of false vacuum decay in $N=1$ supergravity theories. By establishing a Bogomol'nyi bound for the energy density stored in the domain wall of the $O(4)$ invariant bubble, we show that supersymmetric vacua…
We consider a very simple toy model for a spatially varying `cosmological constant', where we are inside a spherical bubble (with a given set of cosmological parameters) that is surrounded by a larger region where these parameters are…
The problem of state selection when multiple metastable states compete for occupation is considered for systems that are accelerated far from equilibrium. The dynamics of the supercurrent in a narrow superconducting ring under the influence…
Recent LHC results concerning the mass of the Higgs boson indicate that the vacuum in our Universe may be unstable. We analyze properties of unstable vacuum states from the point of view of the quantum theory of unstable states. From the…
We propose that the existence of the string landscape suggests the universe can be in a quantum glass state, where an extremely large viscosity is generated, and long distance dynamics slows down. At the same time, the short distance…
The behavior of the gravitating vacuum energy density in an expanding universe is discussed. A scenario is presented with a step-wise relaxation of the vacuum energy density. The vacuum energy density moves from plateau to plateau and…
We describe here how the late time behavior of the decaying states, which is predicted to deviate from an exponential form, while normally of insignificant consequence, may have important cosmological implications in the case of false…
The dynamical realisation of the equation of state $p +\rho =0$ is studied. A non-pathological dynamics for the perturbations of such a system mimicking a dynamical cosmological constant (DCC) requires to go beyond the perfect fluid…
We present a theory with axion flux monodromies coupled to gravity, that reduces to the local vacuum energy sequester below the axion mass scales. If the axion potentials include a term generated by nonperturbative couplings to gauge…
There is a standard story about decay in multi-dimensional flux landscapes: that from any state, the fastest decay is to take a small step, discharging one flux unit at a time; that fluxes with the same coupling constant are…
The principles of General Relativity allow for a non-vanishing cosmological constant, which can possibly be interpreted at least partially in terms of quantum-fluctuations of matter fields. Depending on sign and magnitude it can cause…
The linear cosmological perturbation theory of an almost homogeneous and isotropic perfect fluid universe is reconsidered and formally simplified by introducing new covariant and gauge-invariant variables with physical interpretations on…
For landscapes of field theory vacua, we identify an effect that can greatly enhance the decay rates to wildly distant minima--so much so that such transitions may dominate over transitions to near neighbors. We exhibit these 'giant leaps'…
A supersymmetric theory with several scalar superfields generically has several domain wall type classical configurations which interpolate between various supersymmetric vacua of the scalar fields. Depending on the couplings, some of these…
We show that a cosmic string associated with spontaneous $U(1)_R$ symmetry breaking gives a constraint for supersymmetric model building. In some models, the string can be viewed as a tube-like domain wall with a winding number…
Recent developments in string theory have reinforced the notion that the space of stable supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric string vacua fills out a ``landscape'' whose features are largely unknown. It is then hoped that progress in…
It has been suggested recently that in a consistent theory any Minkowski vacuum must be exactly stable. As a result, a large class of theories that in ordinary treatment would appear sufficiently long-lived, in reality make no sense. In…