Related papers: Gauge-independence of tunneling rates
We clarify issues of convexity, gauge-dependence and radiative corrections in relation to tunneling rates. Despite the gauge dependence of the effective action at zero and finite temperature, it is shown that tunneling and nucleation rates…
In field theories where a metastable false vacuum state arises as a result of radiative corrections, the calculation of the rate of false vacuum decay by bubble nucleation depends on the effective potential and the other functions that…
The decay rate of a false vacuum is studied in gauge theory, paying particular attention to its gauge invariance. Although the decay rate should not depend on the gauge parameter $\xi$ according to the Nielsen identity, the gauge invariance…
We formulate a procedure to obtain a gauge-invariant tunneling rate at zero temperature using the recently developed tunneling potential approach. This procedure relies on a consistent power counting in gauge coupling and a derivative…
We consider in what sense quantum tunnelling is associated with non-classical probabilistic behaviour. We use the Wigner function quasi-probability description of quantum states. We give a definition of tunnelling that allows us to say…
We explicitly show perturbative gauge fixing independence of the tunneling rate to a stable radiatively induced vacuum in the abelian Higgs model. We work with a class of $R_\xi$ gauges in the presence of both dimensionless and dimensionful…
We consider the decay of "false kinks," that is, kinks formed in a scalar field theory with a pair of degenerate symmetry-breaking false vacua in 1+1 dimensions. The true vacuum is symmetric. A second scalar field and a peculiar potential…
We study the gauge invariance of the decay rate of the false vacuum for the model in which the scalar field responsible for the false vacuum decay has gauge quantum number. In order to calculate the decay rate, one should integrate out the…
We present measurements of the rates for an electron to tunnel on and off a quantum dot, obtained using a quantum point contact charge sensor. The tunnel rates show exponential dependence on drain-source bias and plunger gate voltages. The…
In theories with radiative symmetry breaking, the calculation of the false vacuum decay rate requires the inclusion of higher-order terms in the derivative expansion of the effective action. I show here that, in the case of covariant…
We investigate the tunneling process between two symmetric stable islands of a forced pendulum Hamiltonian in the weak chaos regime. We show that when the tunneling doublet is quantized over a classical non-linear resonance the tunneling…
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.…
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…
Tunneling in quantum field theory is well understood in the case of a single scalar field. However, in theories with spontaneous symmetry breaking, one has to take into account the additional zero modes which appear due to the Goldstone…
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…
We consider vacuum tunneling of a new kind where the false vacua are not translationally invariant, but have topological defects that break some of their translational symmetries. In the particular case where the topological defects are…
The field-theoretical description of quantum fluctuations on the background of a tunneling field $\sigma$ is revisited in the case of a functional Schrodinger approach. We apply this method in the case when quantum fluctuations are coupled…
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…
A tunneling bounce driving the decay of a metastable vacuum must respect an integral constraint dictated by simple scaling arguments that is very useful to determine key properties of the bounce. After illustrating how this works in a…
We describe a new method which allows one to evaluate the false vacuum decay rate for a general potential which may depend on an arbitrary number of scalar fields.