Related papers: A New Mechanism for Bubble Nucleation: Classical T…
We present an interpretation of the physics of space-times undergoing eternal inflation by repeated nucleation of bubbles. In many cases the physics can be interpreted in terms of the quantum mechanics of a system with a finite number of…
We study tunneling between vacua in multi-dimensional field spaces. Working in the strict thin wall approximation, we find that the conventional instantons for false vacuum decay develop a new vanishing eigenvalue in their fluctuation…
We report simulations on the homogeneous liquid-fcc nucleation of charged colloids for both low and high contact energy values. As a precursor for crystal formation, we observe increased local order at the position where the crystal will…
Nucleation is generally viewed as a structural fluctuation that passes a critical size to eventually become a stable emerging new phase. However, this concept leaves out many details, such as changes in cluster composition and competing…
The vacuum cavity mode induces a potential barrier and a well when an ultra-slow excited atom enters the interaction region so that it can be reflected or transmitted with a certain probability. We demonstrate here that a slow-velocity…
We study induced nucleation by considering the accumulation rate of shrinking subcritical bubbles. We derive the probability for a collection of subcritical bubbles to form a critical bubble, and argue that this mechanism could well play a…
One possible way in which phase transitions in the early universe may have ocurred is via nucleation of bubbles of the new phase (true vacuum) in the old phase (false vacuum). The technique most widely used to compute the probability of…
Bubble nucleation in liquid confined in nanochannel is studied using molecular dynamics simulations and compared against nucleation in the liquid over smooth (i.e. without confinement). Nucleation is achieved by heating part of a surface to…
We discover that quantum dynamical tunneling, occurring between phase space regions in a classically forbidden way, can break conserved quantities in pseudointegrable systems. We rigorously prove that a conserved quantity in a class of…
We investigate the shell structure of spherical nuclear bubbles in simple phenomenological shell model potentials. The shell correction energies for doubly magic bubbles may be as large as -40 MeV and probably imply a very long lifetime…
In first-order cosmological phase transitions, the asymptotic velocity of expanding bubbles is of crucial relevance for predicting observables like the spectrum of stochastic gravitational waves, or for establishing the viability of…
Vacuum bubbles may nucleate during the inflationary epoch and expand, reaching relativistic speeds. After inflation ends, the bubbles are quickly slowed down, transferring their momentum to a shock wave that propagates outwards in the…
Simulating key static and dynamic properties of matter -- from creation in the Big Bang to evolution into sub-atomic and astrophysical environments -- arising from the underlying fundamental quantum fields of the Standard Model and their…
Assuming that the electroweak and QCD phase transitions are first order, upon supercooling, bubbles of the new phase appear. These bubbles grow to macroscopic sizes compared to the natural scales associated with the Compton wavelengths of…
The quantum decay of a metastable vacuum is exponentially suppressed by a tunneling action that can be calculated in the semi-classical approximation as the Euclidean action of a bounce that interpolates between the false and true phases.…
The response of underwater structures to a near-field explosion is coupled with the dynamics of the explosion bubble and the surrounding water. This multiphase fluid-structure interaction process is investigated using a model problem that…
False vacuum decay is a potential mechanism governing the evolution of the early Universe, with profound connections to non-equilibrium quantum physics, including quenched dynamics, the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, and dynamical metastability.…
Phase transitions ruled by nucleation and growth can occur by nonrandom arrangement of nuclei. This is verified, for instance, in thin film growth at solid surfaces by vapor condensation or by electrodeposition where, around each nucleus, a…
The transport of ultra-cold atoms in magneto-optical potentials provides a clean setting in which to investigate the distinct predictions of classical versus quantum dynamics for a system with coupled degrees of freedom. In this system,…
Liquid helium under negative pressures represents a unique possibility for studying nucleation and growth dynamics of cavities at low temperatures down to absolute zero. We analyze the growth dynamics of cavities and determine the…