Related papers: Instantons: thick-wall approximation
This paper studies the decay of a large, closed domain wall in a closed universe. Such walls can form in the presence of a broken, discrete symmetry. We study a novel process of quantum decay for such a wall, in which the vacuum fluctuates…
For {\it low} T new strict results for the instanton density n(T) are reported. Using the PCAC methods, we express n(T) in terms of {\it vacuum} average values of certain operators, times their {\it calculated} T-dependence. At high T, we…
We develop an instanton approach to the non-equilibrium dynamics in one-dimensional random environments. The long time behavior is controlled by rare fluctuations of the disorder potential and, accordingly, by the tail of the distribution…
The Tunneling Potential Formalism was introduced to calculate the tunneling actions that control vacuum decay as an alternative to the standard Euclidean Formalism. The new approach sets the problem as a simple variational problem in field…
Instantons play a crucial role in understanding non-perturbative dynamics in quantum field theories, including those with spontaneously broken gauge symmetries. In the broken phase, finite-size instanton-like configurations are no longer…
We study the decay of the false vacuum in the regime where the quantum field theory analysis is not valid, since gravitational effects become important. This happens when the height of the barrier separating the false and the true vacuum is…
Semiclassical instanton theory is a form of quantum transition-state theory which can be applied to computing thermal reaction rates for complex molecular systems including quantum tunneling effects. There have been a number of attempts to…
We present a new method to estimate terminal bubble velocities during first-order phase transitions in a plasma in local equilibrium. The method relies on calculating the extrema of a modified potential function for the scalar field…
The necessary and sufficient condition for the false vacuum decay in a de Sitter universe via Coleman - de Luccia instanton is applied on the scalar field with quasi - exponential potential.
The valley structure associated with quantum meta-stability is examined. It is defined by the new valley equation, which enables consistent evaluation of the imaginary-time path-integral. We study the structure of this new valley equation…
Recently, it was shown that in the absence of gravity there exist non-$O(4)$-symmetric instanton solutions with finite action beyond Coleman's instantons. In this paper, focusing on the false-vacuum decay in a single scalar field in flat…
A recent analytic test of the instanton method performed by comparing the exact spectrum of the Lam${\acute e}$ potential (derived from representations of a finite dimensional matrix expressed in terms of $su(2)$ generators) with the…
We describe new bubble decays in pure D+1 dimensional Einstein theory with two compact directions. The instanton solution is constructed by analytic continuation of the Kaluza-Klein electrically charged black hole solution. We show that the…
The decay rate of a false vacuum is determined by the minimal action solution of the tunnelling field: bounce. In this Letter, we focus on models with scalar fields which have a canonical kinetic term in $N(>2)$ dimensional Euclidean space,…
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…
The spectrum of created particles during the tunneling process, leading to the decay of a false vacuum state, is studied numerically in the thick-wall approximation. It is shown that in this case the particle production is very intensive…
A standard approach to analyzing tunneling processes in various physical contexts is to use instanton or imaginary time path techniques. For systems in which the tunneling takes place in a time dependent setting, the standard methods are…
We identify a new class of UV-complete instanton solutions that describe the false vacuum\- decay of a real scalar field in a particular curved spacetime background. To this end, we consider a simple scalar theory with a Coleman potential…
If a theory has more than one classically stable vacuum, quantum tunneling and thermal jumps make the transition between the vacua possible. The transition happens through a first order phase transition started by nucleation of a bubble of…
In the present note we show that the thin-wall approximation is not an assumption rather a necessary condition for satisfying Boucher's criteria for gravitational stability of the scalar potential.