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Related papers: Thermal False Vacuum Decay Is More Than It Seems

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The relaxation of a quantum field from a metastable state (false vacuum) to a stable one (true vacuum), also known as false vacuum decay, is a fundamental problem in quantum field theory and cosmology. We study this phenomenon using a…

Quantum Gases · Physics 2026-02-04 Paniyanchatha Moolayil Sivasankar , Franco Dalfovo , Alessio Recati , Arko Roy

We study the thermodynamic behavior of a decaying scalar field coupled to a relativistic simple fluid. It is shown that if the decay products are represented by a thermalized bath, its temperature evolution law requires naturally a new…

Astrophysics · Physics 2016-08-30 J. A. S. Lima , J. A. Espichán Carrillo

The false vacuum is a metastable state that can occur in quantum field theory, and its decay was first studied semi-classically by Coleman. In this work we consider the 1+1 dimensional $\varphi^4$ theory, which is the simplest model that…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2022-07-14 Dávid Szász-Schagrin , Gábor Takács

We introduce a new picture of vacuum decay which, in contrast to existing semiclassical techniques, provides a real-time description and does not rely on classically-forbidden tunneling paths. Using lattice simulations, we observe vacuum…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2019-07-24 Jonathan Braden , Matthew C. Johnson , Hiranya V. Peiris , Andrew Pontzen , Silke Weinfurtner

The quantum decay of a relativistic scalar field from a metastable state ("false vacuum decay") is a fundamental idea in quantum field theory and cosmology. This occurs via local formation of bubbles of true vacuum with their subsequent…

The decay rate for a particle in a metastable cubic potential is investigated in the quantum regime by the Euclidean path integral method in semiclassical approximation. The imaginary time formalism allows one to monitor the system as a…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2008-04-22 Marco Zoli

We compute the decay rate of a metastable cosmic string in contact with a thermal bath by finding the instanton solution. The new feature is that this decay rate is found in the context of non thermal scalar fields in contact with a thermal…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2015-06-12 Johanna Karouby

Through experimental investigation into the behaviour of a polar dielectric working fluid, an ideal quasi-thermodynamic cycle has been established. Particular stages of this cycle are described in terms of a condensed-matter analogue of the…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2021-06-18 Mark Gibbons

Metastable states of quantum many-body systems with confinement offer a means to simulate false vacuum phenomenology, including non-equilibrium dynamical processes like decay by nucleation, in truncated limits. Recent work has examined the…

An atom, coupled linearly to an environment, is considered in a harmonic approximation in thermal equilibrium inside a cavity. The environment is modeled by an infinite set of harmonic oscillators. We employ the notion of dressed states to…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2012-01-25 F. C. Khanna , A. P. C. Malbouisson , J. M. C. Malbouisson , A. E. Santana

We consider a formalism to describe the false-vacuum decay of a scalar field in gauge theories in non-perturbative regimes. We find that the larger the gauge coupling with respect to the self-coupling of the scalar, the shallower the local…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2024-03-07 Gianluca Calcagni , Marco Frasca , Anish Ghoshal

The probability of destruction of a metastable vacuum state by the field of a highly virtual particle with energy $E$ is calculated for a (3+1) dimensional theory in the leading WKB approximation in the thin-wall limit. It is found that the…

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Physics 2009-10-22 M. B. Voloshin

When a physical system is put in contact with a very large thermal bath, it undergoes a dissipative (i.e., an apparently irreversible) process that leads to thermal equilibrium. This dynamical process can be described fully within quantum…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2015-05-13 Valerio Scarani

The decay of a metastable false vacuum by bubble nucleation is studied in the high temperature limit of the gauge theory in which an SO(3) gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken to an SO(2). The effects of internal symmetry are so drastic…

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Physics 2009-10-31 Yoonbai Kim , Seung Joo Lee , Kei-ichi Maeda , Nobuyuki Sakai

The experimental data, as well as theoretical considerations allow (and, in some cases, require) the Universe at present to rest in a false vacuum, whose approximate stability imposes constraints on the model parameters. Under very general…

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Physics 2014-11-17 Alexander Kusenko , Paul Langacker

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 $t$…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2023-02-08 K. Urbanowski

We investigate the role of nonperturbative, bubble-like inhomogeneities on the decay rate of false-vacuum states in two and three-dimensional scalar field theories. The inhomogeneities are induced by setting up large-amplitude oscillations…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2008-11-26 Marcelo Gleiser , Barrett Rogers , Joel Thorarinson

Temperature dependent relativistic mean-field (RMF) plus BCS approach has been used for the first time to investigate the anti-bubble effect of the temperature and deformation in the light, medium-heavy and superheavy nuclei. Influence of…

Nuclear Theory · Physics 2019-01-30 G. Saxena , M. Kumawat , Mamta Aggarwal

The physics of false vacuum decay during first-order phase transitions in the early universe may be studied in the laboratory via cold-atom analogue simulators. However, a key difference between analogue experiments and the early universe…

Quantum Gases · Physics 2025-04-07 Kate Brown , Ian G. Moss , Thomas P. Billam

In quantum field theory (QFT), the "vacuum" is not just empty space but the lowest-energy state of a quantum field. If the energy landscape has multiple local minima, the local ground states are the false vacuum (FV) which can tunnel…