Related papers: Spontaneous and Induced Decay of Metastable String…
We consider the phase transition of a string with tension $\eps_1$ to a string with a smaller tension $\eps_2$ at finite temperature. For sufficiently small temperatures the transition proceeds through thermally catalyzed quantum tunneling,…
We calculate the probability of destruction of a metastable string by collisions of the Goldstone bosons, corresponding to the transverse waves on the string. We find a general formula that allows to determine the probability of the string…
We consider the phase transition of a string with tension $\eps_1$ to a string with a smaller tension $\eps_2$. The transition proceeds through quantum tunneling, and we calculate in arbitrary number of dimensions the pre-exponential factor…
We consider the decay of a metastable domain wall. The transition proceeds through quantum tunneling, and we calculate in arbitrary number of dimensions the preexponential factor multiplying the leading semiclassical exponential expression…
The decay rate of metastable states is determined at high temperatures by thermal activation, whereas at temperatures close to zero quantum tunneling is relevant. At some temperature $T_{c}$ the transition from classical to…
We systematically analyze the decay of metastable topological defects that arise from the spontaneous breakdown of gauge or global symmetries. Quantum-mechanical tunneling rates are estimated for a variety of decay processes. The decay rate…
We compute the decay rate of a metastable cosmic string in contact with a thermal bath by finding the instanton solution. The new feature is that this decay rate is found in the context of non thermal scalar fields in contact with a thermal…
We consider formation of composite strings and domain walls as a result of fusion of two elementary objects (elementary strings in the first case and elementary walls in the second) located at a distance from each other. The tension of the…
Thermal activation and macroscopic quantum tunneling in current-biased discrete Josephson transmission lines are studied theoretically. The degrees of freedom under consideration are the phases across the junctions which are coupled to each…
Metastable cosmic strings appear in models of new physics with a two-step symmetry breaking $G\to H\to 1$, where $\pi_1(H)\neq 0$ and $\pi_1(G)=0$. They decay via the monopole-antimonopole pair creation inside. Conventionally, the breaking…
The thermal decay of linear chains from a metastable state is investigated. A crossover from rigid to elastic decay occurs when the number of particles, the single particle energy barrier or the coupling strength between the particles is…
A dynamical study of the decay of a metastable state by quantum tunneling through an anisotropic, non separable, two-dimensional potential barrier is performed by the numerical solution of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. Initial…
We study analytically and numerically the decay of a metastable phase in (2+1)-dimensional classical scalar field theory coupled to a heat bath, which is equivalent to two-dimensional Euclidean quantum field theory at zero temperature. By a…
We study thermal effects on a decay process of a false vacuum in type IIA string theory. At finite temperature, the potential of the theory is corrected and also thermally excited modes enhance the decay rate. The false vacuum can…
We generalize the string method, originally designed for the study of thermally activated rare events, to the calculation of quantum tunneling rates. This generalization is based on the analogy between quantum mechanics and statistical…
String breaking is a central dynamical process in theories featuring confinement, where a string connecting two charges decays at the expense of the creation of new particle-antiparticle pairs. Here, we show that this process can also be…
We present a study of the decay of metastable states of a scalar field via thermal activation, in the presence of a finite density of fermions. The process we consider is the nucleation of ``{\it droplets}'' of true vacuum inside the false…
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 show theoretically the existence of a metastable state and the possibility of decay to the ground state through macroscopic quantum tunneling in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates with repulsive interactions. Numerical analysis of…
We discuss the appearance at the QCD phase transition, and the subsequent decay, of axion walls bounded by strings in N=1 axion models. We argue on intuitive grounds that the main decay mechanism is into barely relativistic axions. We…