Related papers: Quantum and Gradient Corrections to False Vacuum D…
We study the quantum dynamics of de Sitter space formulated as a minisuperspace model with flat spatial hypersurfaces in unimodular gravity, both in the Wheeler-DeWitt approach and in loop quantum cosmology (LQC). Time evolution is defined…
Within the functional renormalization group approach to Background Independent quantum gravity, we explore the scale dependent effective geometry of the de Sitter solution dS${}_4$. The investigation employs a novel approach whose essential…
I show that the de Sitter Equilibrium cosmology generically predicts observable levels of curvature in the Universe today. The predicted value of the curvature depends only on the ratio of the density of non-relativistic matter to energy…
Quantum decay of a relativistic scalar field from a false vacuum is a fundamental idea in quantum field theory. It is relevant to models of the early Universe, where the nucleation of bubbles gives rise to an inflationary universe and the…
We consider an atom (represented by a two-level system) moving in front of a dielectric plate, and study how traces of dissipation and decoherence (both effects induced by vacuum field fluctuations) can be found in the corrections to the…
We consider a single real scalar field in flat spacetime with a polynomial potential up to $\phi^4$, that has a local minimum, the false vacuum, and a deeper global minimum, the true vacuum. When the vacua are almost degenerate we are in…
Relativistic scalar fields are ubiquitous in modified theories of gravity. An important tool in understanding their impact on structure formation, especially in the context of N-body simulations, is the quasi-static approximation in which…
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 possible types of the nucleation of vacuum bubbles. We classify vacuum bubbles in de Sitter background and present some numerical solutions. The thin-wall approximation is employed to obtain the nucleation rate and the radius…
In a pioneering paper on the role of gravity on false vacuum decay, Coleman and De Luccia showed that a strong gravitational field can stabilize the false vacuum, suppressing the formation of true vacuum bubbles. This result is obtained for…
We consider phase transitions and their contributions to vacuum energy in the manifestly local theory of vacuum energy sequestering. We demonstrate that the absence of instabilities imposes constraints on the couplings of gravitating and…
A geometric interpretation of the spontaneous symmetry breaking effect, which plays a key role in the Standard Model, is developed. The advocated approach is related to the effective use of the momentum 4-spaces of the constant curvature,…
A spatially flat Robertson-Walker spacetime driven by a cosmological constant is non-conformally coupled to a massless scalar field. The equations of semiclassical gravity are explicitly solved for this case, and a self-consistent de Sitter…
It is possible to associate temperatures with the non-extremal horizons of a large class of spherically symmetric spacetimes using periodicity in the Euclidean sector and this procedure works for the de Sitter spacetime as well. But, unlike…
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…
There has been strong interest in the possibility that in the quantum-gravity realm momentum space might be curved, mainly focusing, especially for what concerns phenomenological implications, on the case of a de Sitter momentum space. We…
Cosmic strings are the most popular topological defects arising from the spontaneous breaking of fundamental symmetries in the early Universe. They are the source of a number of interesting effects in cosmology and astrophysics. An…
We consider free massive matter fields in static scalar, electric and gravitational backgrounds. Tuning these backgrounds to the brink of vacuum decay, we identify a term in their effective action that is singular. This singular term is…
We develop semiclassical methods for studying bubble nucleation in models with parameters that vary slowly in time. Introducing a more general rotation of the time contour allows access to a larger set of final states, and typically a…
We employ the graviton self-energy induced by a massless, minimally coupled (MMC) scalar on de Sitter background to compute the quantum corrections to the gravitational potentials of a static point particle with a mass $M$. The…