Related papers: Impact of Gravity on Vacuum Stability
This paper examines the classical dynamics of false vacuum regions embedded in surrounding regions of true vacuum, in the thin-wall limit. The dynamics of all generally relativistically allowed solutions -- most but not all of which have…
We revisit the famous Coleman-de Luccia formalism for decay of false vacuum in gravitational theory. Since the corresponding wave function is time-independent we argue that its instanton's interpretation as the decay rate probability is…
Under the hypothesis that the cosmological constant vanishes in the true ground state with lowest possible energy density, we argue that the observed small but finite vacuum-like energy density can be explained if we consider a theory with…
The experimental data, as well as theoretical considerations allow (and, in some cases, require) the Universe at present to rest in a false vacuum, whose approximate stability imposes constraints on the model parameters. Under very general…
In this work we study vacuum decay and bubble nucleation in models of $f(R)$ higher curvature gravity. Building upon the analysis of Coleman-De Luccia (CDL), we present the formalism to calculate the Euclidean action and the bounce solution…
We consider a formalism to describe the false-vacuum decay of a scalar field in gauge theories in non-perturbative regimes. We find that the larger the gauge coupling with respect to the self-coupling of the scalar, the shallower the local…
We consider thin spherical shells of matter in both Newtonian gravity and general relativity, and examine their equilibrium configurations and dynamical stability. Thin-shell models are admittedly a poor substitute for realistic stellar…
In a recent paper \cite{Acharya:2006ia} it was shown that in $M$ theory vacua without fluxes, all moduli are stabilized by the effective potential and a stable hierarchy is generated, consistent with standard gauge unification. This paper…
Theories with more than one vacuum allow quantum transitions between them, which may proceed via bubble nucleation; theories with more than two vacua posses additional decay modes in which the wall of a bubble may further decay. The…
The renormalization group in effective quantum gravity can be consistently formulated using the Vilkovisky and DeWitt version of effective action and assuming a non-zero cosmological constant. Taking into account that the vacuum counterpart…
Quantum gravity places entirely new challenges on the formulation of a consistent theory as well as on an extraction of potentially observable effects. Quantum corrections due to the gravitational field are commonly expected to be tiny…
We theoretically study the behavior of vesicles filled with a liquid of higher density than the surrounding medium, a technique frequently used in experiments. In the presence of gravity, these vesicles sink to the bottom of the container,…
For variable gravity models the strength of gravity, as measured by Newton's ``constant'' or the Planck mass, depends on the value of a scalar field, the cosmon. We discuss two simple four-parameter models with a quadratic or constant…
We investigate the effect of vacuum corrections, due to the trace anomaly and Casimir effect, on the stability of an oscillating universe with respect to decay by tunneling to the singularity. We find that these corrections do not generally…
Stability of the Higgs vacuum during early universe inflation is dependent on how the Higgs couples to the spacetime curvature. Limits on the curvature coupling parameter at the electroweak scale $\xi_{EW}$ are shown to be consistent only…
The search for a theory of quantum gravity is the most fundamental problem in all of theoretical physics, but there are as yet no experimental results at all to guide this endeavor. What seems to be needed is a pragmatic way to test if…
The photoeffect, (vacuum analogue of the photoelectric effect,) is used to study the structure of the physical vacuum, the outcome of which is the basis for an hypothesis on the nature of gravitation and inertia. The source of gravitation…
A possible connection between the energy W of the vacuum fluctuations of quantum fields and gravity in "empty space" is conjectured in this paper using a natural cutoff of high momenta with the help of the gravitational radius of the vacuum…
We present a simple and intuitive description of both, the Schwinger effect and false vacuum decay through bubble nucleation, as tunneling problems in one-dimensional relativistic quantum mechanics. Both problems can be described by an…
From calculations of the variance of fluctuations and of the mean of the energy density of a massless scalar field in the Minkowski vacuum as a function of an intrinsic scale defined by the world function between two nearby points (as used…