Related papers: Thermal False Vacuum Decay Is More Than It Seems
The decay of metastable 'false vacuum' states via bubble nucleation plays a crucial role in many cosmological scenarios. Cold-atom analog experiments will soon provide the first empirical probes of this process, with potentially…
I have calculated the exponential suppression factor in the decay rate of the false vacuum (per unit volume) for a real scalar field at finite temperature, in the presence of gravity, in the thin-wall approximation. Temperatures are assumed…
In this paper, we numerically study the impact heavy field degrees of freedom have on vacuum metastability in a toy model, with the aim of better understanding how the decoupling theorem extends to semiclassical processes. We observe that…
[Talk presented at the International Seminar Quarks `92, Zvenigorod, Russia, May 11-17, 1992.] The electroweak vacuum need not be absolutely stable. For certain top and Higgs masses in the Minimal Standard Model, it is instead metastable…
The metastable dark energy scenario is revisited by assuming that the current false vacuum energy density is the remnant from a primeval inflationary stage. The zero temperature scalar field potential is here described by an even power…
Relaxation process of a coherent scalar field oscillation in the thermal bath is investigated using nonequilibrium quantum field theory. The Langevin-type equation of motion is obtained which has a memory term and both additive and…
Based on the current experimental data, the Standard Model predicts that the current vacuum state of the Universe is metastable, leading to a non-zero rate of vacuum decay through nucleation of bubbles of true vacuum. Our existence implies…
In his 2005 review, Gravity and the Thermodynamics of Horizons, Paddy suggested that a vacuum in thermal equilibrium with a bath of radiation should have a gradually diminishing energy. We work through the consequences of this scenario, and…
This review represents a detailed and comprehensive discussion of the Thermal Field Theory (TFT) concepts and key results in Yukawa-type theories. We start with a general pedagogical introduction into the TFT in the imaginary- and real-time…
One of the prominent decay modes of heavy nuclei which are produced in astrophysical environments at temperatures of the order of $10^9$ K is the $\alpha$ ($^4$He) decay. Thermally enhanced $\alpha$ decay rates are evaluated within the…
We examine the computation of the nucleation barrier used in the expression for false vacuum decay rates in finite temperature field theory. By a detailed analysis of the determinantal prefactor, we show that the correct bounce solution…
Quantum field theory is constructed upon the assumption of stabilities of the vacuum and of the one-particle state. For finite temperature, the one-particle state becomes unstable because of thermal fluctuations, whereas the thermal vacuum…
Discrete symmetry breaking and possible restoration at finite temperature $T$ are analysed in 2D Gross-Neveu model by the real-time thermal field theory in the fermion bubble approximation. The dynamical fermion mass $m$ is proven to be…
The influence of the environment in the thermal equilibrium properties of a bipartite continuous variable quantum system is studied. The problem is treated within a system-plus-reservoir approach. The considered model reproduces the…
We consider stationary driven systems in contact with a thermal equilibrium bath. There is a constant (Joule) heat dissipated from the steady system to the environment as long as all parameters are unchanged. As a natural generalization…
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…
Classical thermodynamics treats temperature as a state variable characterizing systems in equilibrium with idealized infinite reservoirs. We argue that this framing, while computationally exact, obscures an essential physical reality: any…
We have studied the decay of a Bose-Einstein condensate of metastable helium atoms in an optical dipole trap. In the regime where two- and three-body losses can be neglected we show that the Bose-Einstein condensate and the thermal cloud…
An adiabatic transition between two equilibrium states corresponding to different stiffnesses in an infinite chain of particles is studied. Initially, the chain particles have random displacements and random velocities corresponding to a…
We investigate the role of large amplitude sub-critical thermal fluctuations in the dynamics of first order phase transitions. In particular, we obtain a kinetic equation for the number density of sub-critical fluctuations of the…