Related papers: False vacuum decay in quantum spin chains
Despite being at the heart of the theory of the "Big Bang" and cosmic inflation, the quantum field theory prediction of false vacuum tunneling has not been tested. To address the exponential complexity of the problem, a table-top quantum…
Analog condensed matter systems present an exciting opportunity to simulate early Universe models in table-top experiments. We consider a recent proposal for an analog condensed matter experiment to simulate the relativistic quantum decay…
We consider the Skyrme model modified by the addition of mass terms which explicitly break chiral symmetry and pick out a specific point on the model's target space as the unique true vacuum. However, they also allow the possibility of…
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 $\Lambda CDM$…
A metastable state, or a false vacuum, is not an eigenstate of the Hamiltonian in quantum field theory. Its energy density has a non-zero imaginary part equal to its decay width. Therefore, supersymmetry cannot be exact in the false vacuum.…
False vacuum decay typically proceeds via the nucleation of spherical bubbles of true vacuum, described by $O(4)$ symmetric field configurations in Euclidean time. In this work, we investigate how the presence of cosmic strings can catalyze…
False vacuum decay in scalar quantum field theory (QFT) is a cornerstone of early Universe cosmology and high energy physics, yet its real-time dynamics is essentially inaccessible to classical computation due to its non-perturbative,…
The existence of a landscape of metastable vacua raises the possibility that our Universe may have undergone quantum vacuum decay at late times. This work explores how such a transition can be tested with cosmological observables, focusing…
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 describe here how the late time behavior of the decaying states, which is predicted to deviate from an exponential form, while normally of insignificant consequence, may have important cosmological implications in the case of false…
Pump-probe spectroscopy is a powerful tool for probing response dynamics of quantum many-body systems in and out-of-equilibrium. Quantum computers have proved useful in simulating such experiments by exciting the system, evolving, and then…
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 use analytic estimates and numerical simulations to explore the stochastic approach to vacuum decay. According to this approach, the time derivative of a scalar field, which is in a local vacuum state, develops a large fluctuation and…
We study the dynamics of false vacuum bubbles. A nonminimally coupled scalar field gives rise to the effect of negative tension. The mass of a false vacuum bubble from outside observer's point of view can be positive, zero, or negative. The…
False-vacuum decay between two morphologically distinct supersolid phases via bubble nucleation is studied in a uniform dipolar gas confined to the plane. Starting from a metastable honeycomb state, the formation of stripe phase domains is…
We study the effect of vortices on the tunneling decay of a symmetry-breaking false vacuum in three spacetime dimensions with gravity. The scenario considered is one in which the initial state, rather than being the homogeneous false…
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…
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 try to find conditions, the fulfillment of which allows a universe born in a metastable false vacuum state to survive and not to collapse. The conditions found are in the form of inequalities linking the depending on time $t$…
Within the quantum mechanical treatment of the decay problem one finds that at late times $t$ the survival probability of an unstable state cannot have the form of an exponentially decreasing function of time $t$ but it has an inverse…