Related papers: Vacuum decay in multidimensional field landscapes:…
We consider the question of whether cosmic ray catalysed false vacuum decay can be phenomenologically more important than spontaneous decay via quantum tunnelling. We extend the zero bubble wall width Landau-WKB analysis of catalysed false…
Motivated by the possibility of a string landscape, we reexamine tunneling of a scalar field across single/multiple barriers. Recent investigations have suggested modifications to the usual picture of false vacuum decay that lead to…
We study the dynamical evolution of a phase interface or bubble in the context of a \lambda \phi^4 + g \phi^6 scalar quantum field theory. We use a self-consistent mean-field approximation derived from a 2PI effective action to construct an…
The theory of false vacuum decay in a thermal system may have a cross-over from predominantly thermal transitions to quantum transitions as the temperature is decreased. New numerical methods and results are presented here that can be used…
Theories with compact extra dimensions are sometimes unstable to decay into a bubble of nothing -- an instability resulting in the destruction of spacetime. We investigate the existence of these bubbles in theories where the moduli fields…
Ultracold atomic gases can undergo phase transitions that mimic relativistic vacuum decay, allowing us to empirically test early-Universe physics in tabletop experiments. We investigate the physics of these analog systems, going beyond…
We review the description of tunnelling phenomena in the semi-classical approximation in ordinary quantum mechanics and in quantum field theory. In particular, we describe in detail the calculation, up to the first quantum corrections, of…
We consider a model where a scalar field develops a metastable vacuum state and weakly interacts with another scalar field. In this situation we find the probability of decay of the false vacuum stimulated by the presence and collisions of…
A recent analysis of the false-vacuum decay in non-perturbative regimes is here extended in the presence of Einstein gravity, computing the corresponding effective potential and decay rate. We consider a $\lambda \phi^4$ scalar field theory…
We derive simple expressions to regularise functional determinants from fluctuations of fields with spin 0, 1/2, and 1. These are important for the precise dimensionful determination of false vacuum decay rates. We work in $D = 4$ Euclidean…
We consider classical Minkowskian solutions to the field equation in the (1+1) dimensional scalar model with the exponential interaction that describe the unsuppressed false vacuum decay induced by $n$ initial particles. We find that there…
Vacuum excitation by time-varying boundary conditions is not only of fundamental importance but also has recently been confirmed in a laboratory experiment. In this paper, we study the vacuum excitation of a scalar field by the…
Recent developments in unifying treatment of domain wall configurations and their global space-time structure is presented. Domain walls between vacua of non-equal cosmological constant fall in three classes depending on the value of their…
Temperature plays a crucial role in metastable phenomena, not only by contributing to determine the state (phase) of a system, but also ruling the decay probability to more stable states. Such a situation is encountered in many different…
We study the viscosity corrections to the growth rate of nucleating bubbles in a first order phase transition in scalar field theory. We obtain the non-equilibrium equation of motion of the coordinate that describes small departures from…
We investigate dielectric branes in false vacua in Type IIB string theory. The dielectric branes are supported against collapsing by lower energy vacua inside spherical or tube-like branes. We claim that such branes can be seeds for…
The liquid-vapor transition is a classic example of a discontinuous (first-order) phase transition. Such transitions underlie many phenomena in cosmology, nuclear and particle physics, and condensed-matter physics. They give rise to…
We compute the probability distribution for bubble collisions in an inflating false vacuum which decays by bubble nucleation. Our analysis generalizes previous work of Guth, Garriga, and Vilenkin to the case of general cosmological…
The relative probability to decay towards different vacua during inflation is studied. The calculation is performed in single-field slow-roll potentials using the stochastic inflation formalism. Various situations are investigated,…
The tunneling decay rate per unit volume in Quantum Field Theory (QFT), at order $\hbar$, is given by $\Gamma/V = Ae^{-B}$, where $B$ is the Euclidean action evaluated at the so-called bounce, and $A$ is proportional to the determinant of a…