Related papers: Pseudo-Bounces vs. New Instantons
In this paper, we present a series of supersymmetric models exhibiting an entirely new vacuum structure: towers of metastable vacua with higher and higher energies. As the number of vacua grows towards infinity, the energy of the highest…
In this work we propose an alternative scheme for an Emergent Universe scenario where the universe is initially in a static state supported by a scalar field located in a false vacuum. The universe begins to evolve when, by quantum…
As originally described by Rubakov, particles are produced during the tunneling of a metastable quantum field. We propose to extend his formalism to compute the backreaction of these particles on the semiclassical decay probability of the…
It is shown, that the correct account of quark interaction generated by instanton medium gives the possibility of description on the same ground of both pseudoscalar channel and low lying bound states in the vector channel. It must be…
Assuming the existence of a scalar field which undergoes "ghost condensation" and which has a suitably chosen potential, it is possible to obtain a non-singular bouncing cosmology in the presence of regular matter and radiation. The…
Recent LHC results concerning the mass of the Higgs boson indicate that the vacuum in our Universe may be unstable. We analyze properties of unstable vacuum states from the point of view of the quantum theory of unstable states. From the…
We show how a potential that is well-defined everywhere on the positive half-line, but diverges to $-\infty$ as $x\rightarrow 0^+$, may still be able to dynamically confine a particle to the (positive) half-line. We shall call this effect…
In $N+1$ dimensions, false vacuum decay at zero temperature is dominated by the $O(N+1)$ symmetric instanton, a sphere of radius $R_0$, whereas at temperatures $T>>R_0^{-1}$, the decay is dominated by a `cylindrical' (static) $O(N)$…
We study the decay of dynamically generated resonances from the interaction of two vectors into a $\gamma$ and a pseudoscalar meson. The dynamics requires anomalous terms involving vertices with two vectors and a pseudoscalar, which renders…
We study late-time acceleration scenarios using a quintessence field initially trapped in a metastable false vacuum state. The false vacuum has non-zero vacuum energy and could drive exponential expansion if not coupled with gravity. Upon…
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…
We present a fast and efficient method for studying vacuum stability constraints in multi-scalar theories beyond the Standard Model. This method is designed for a reliable use in large scale parameter scans. The minimization of the scalar…
We show why and how the $I\bar I$ valley trajectory commonly used in the literature so far is in fact unsatisfactory. A better $I\bar I$ valley is suggested. We also give analytic expressions for the multiple instanton-antiinstanton…
The ground state of Bose-Einstein condensates with attractive particle interaction is metastable. One of the decay mechanisms of the condensate is a collapse by macroscopic quantum tunneling, which can be described by the bounce trajectory…
Although the inflationary paradigm is the most widely accepted explanation for the current cosmological observations, it does not necessarily correspond to what actually happened in the early stages of our Universe. To decide on this issue,…
The relative magnitude of the decay constants of the pseudoscalar and vector beauty mesons poses (in contrast to the case of charmed mesons) a long-standing puzzle. We revisit this problem within the framework of our recent improvements of…
Recent observations of Type Ia supernovae provide evidence for the acceleration of our universe, which leads to the possibility that the universe is entering an inflationary epoch. We simulate it under a ``big bounce'' model, which contains…
The imaginary part of the one loop effective action in external backgrounds can be efficiently computed using worldline instantons which are closed periodic paths in spacetime. Exact solutions for nonstatic backgrounds are only known in…
During eternal inflation, a landscape of vacua can be populated by the nucleation of bubbles. These bubbles inevitably collide, and collisions sometimes displace the field into a new minimum in a process known as a classical transition. In…
In a recent model of dark energy (with several phenomenological consequences), the universe is assumed to be trapped in a false vacuum with an energy density of the order of (10^{-3} eV)^4, mimicking the presently successful $\Lambda CDM$…