Related papers: An infrared bound on the ultraviolet bounce

If the potential of a scalar field, Phi, which currently provides the ``dark energy'' of the universe, has a negative minimum -M_0^4, then quantum-mechanical fluctuations could nucleate a bubble of Phi at a negative value of the potential.…

We consider the fate of AdS vacua connected by tunneling events. A precise holographic dual of thin-walled Coleman--de Luccia bounces is proposed in terms of Fubini instantons in an unstable CFT. This proposal is backed by several…

We study the renormalized Nelson model for a scalar matter particle in a continuous confining potential interacting with a possibly massless quantized radiation field. When the radiation field is massless we impose a mild infrared…

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…

We study a system of semilinear wave equations satisfying the weak null condition, which can be regarded as a simplified model for the Einstein vacuum equations. The main objective is to establish precise pointwise decay estimates, as both…

Coleman and De Luccia (CDL) showed that gravitational effects can prevent the decay by bubble nucleation of a Minkowski or AdS false vacuum. In their thin-wall approximation this happens whenever the surface tension in the bubble wall…

We estimate the rate at which collisions between ultra-high energy cosmic rays can form small black holes in models with extra dimensions. If recent conjectures about false vacuum decay catalyzed by black hole evaporation apply, the lack of…

A simple variational calculation is presented showing that a uniformly rotating barotropic fluid in an external potential attains a true energy minimum if and only if the rotation profile is everywhere subsonic. If regions of supersonic…

In a system with one conserved charge the charge diffusion is modified by non-linear self-interactions within an effective field theory (EFT) of diffusive fluctuations. We include the slowest ultraviolet (UV) mode, constructing a…

Some form of approximately exponential inflation is generally assumed to be the origin of our present universe. The inflation is thought to be driven by a scalar field potential where the field first slowly slides along the potential and…

We point out that the (pseudo-)conformal Universe scenario may be realized as decay of conformally invariant, metastable vacuum, which proceeds via spontaneous nucleation and subsequent growth of a bubble of a putative new phase. We study…

We derive the general equations of motion for a braneworld containing a (localized) domain wall. Euclideanization gives the geometry for braneworld false vacuum decay. We explicitly derive these instantons and compute the amplitude for…

We find multi-scalar effective field theories (EFTs) that can achieve a slow inflationary roll despite having a scalar potential that does not satisfy the usual slow-roll condition (d V)^2 << V^2/Mp^2. They evade the usual slow-roll…

We consider perturbation defects obtained by perturbing a 2D conformal field theory (CFT) by a relevant operator on a half-plane. If the perturbed bulk theory flows to an infrared fixed point described by another CFT, the defect flows to a…

The chromomagnetic vacuum of SU(2) gluodynamics is considered in the background of a finite radius flux tube (center-vortex) with homogeneous field inside and zero field outside. In this background there are tachyonic modes. These modes…

The spectrum of small perturbations about oscillating bounce solutions recently discussed in the literature is investigated. Our study supports quite intuitive and expected result: the bounce with N nodes has exactly N homogeneous negative…

We review the status of the Standard Model theory of neutron beta decay. Particular emphasis is put on the recent developments in the electroweak radiative corrections. Given that some existing approaches give slightly different results, we…

We consider a mathematical model for the weak decay of the intermediate boson $Z^0$ into neutrinos and antineutrinos. We prove that the total Hamiltonian has a unique ground state in Fock space and we establish a limiting absorption…

We investigate the role played by fast quenching on the decay of metastable (or false vacuum) states. Instead of the exponentially-slow decay rate per unit volume, $\Gamma_{\rm HN} \sim \exp[-E_b/k_BT]$ ($E_b$ is the free energy of the…

Decaying vacuum models are a class of models that incorporate the vacuum energy density as a time-evolving entity that has the potential to explain the entire evolutionary history of the universe in a single framework. A general solution to…