Related papers: Vacuum decay in quantum field theory
We study the process of vacuum decay in quantum field theory focusing on the stochastic aspects of the interaction between long and short-wavelength modes. This interaction results in a diffusive behavior of the reduced Wigner function…
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…
In quantum theory the vacuum is defined as a state of minimum energy that is devoid of particles but still not completely empty. It is perhaps more surprising that its definition depends on the geometry of the system and on the trajectory…
We use a field theoretic generalization of the Wigner-Weisskopf method to study the stability of the Bunch-Davies vacuum state for a massless, conformally coupled interacting test field in de Sitter space. We find that in $\lambda \phi^4$…
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…
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…
We reformulate time evolution of systems in mixed states in terms of the classical observables of correlators using the Weyl correspondence rule. The resulting equation of motion for the Wigner functional of the density matrix is found to…
Understanding quantum dissipation is important from both theoretical perspective and applications. Here, we show how to describe dissipation in a scalar field theory. We treat dissipation non-perturbatively, represent it by a bilinear term…
We discuss the vacuum energy density term resulting from the spontaneous breakdown of the electroweak gauge symmetry, in the Higgs Mechanism. We alternatively expand the scalar field at one of the degenerate states that lie outside the…
In quantum field theory, the decay of an extended metastable state into the real ground state is known as ``false vacuum decay'' and it takes place via the nucleation of spatially localized bubbles. Despite the large theoretical effort to…
Macroscopic quantum tunneling is described using the master equation for the reduced Wigner function of an open quantum system at zero temperature. Our model consists of a particle trapped in a cubic potential interacting with an…
Vacuum energy in quantum field theory, being the sum of zero-point energies of all field modes, is formally infinite but yet, after regularization or renormalization, can give rise to finite observable effects. One way of understanding how…
We propose a realistic scheme to determine the quantum state of a single mode cavity field even after it has started to decay due to the coupling with an environment. Although dissipation destroys quantum coherences, we show that at zero…
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…
We present a simple and intuitive description of both, the Schwinger effect and false vacuum decay through bubble nucleation, as tunneling problems in one-dimensional relativistic quantum mechanics. Both problems can be described by an…
The Wigner-Weyl transform and phase space formulation of a density matrix approach are applied to a non-Hermitian model which is quadratic in positions and momenta. We show that in the presence of a quantum environment or reservoir, mean…
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 this paper, we use the Weisskopf-Wigner theory to study the entanglement in the state of the free-space radiation field produced from vacuum due to atomic decay. We show how bipartite entanglement is shared between different partitions…
The cosmological constant (vacuum energy) problem is analyzed within the scope of quantum theories with UV-cut-off or fundamental length. Various cases associated with the appearance of the latter are considered both using the Generalized…
The degrees of freedom of any interacting quantum field theory are entangled in momentum space. Thus, in the vacuum state, the infrared degrees of freedom are described by a density matrix with an entanglement entropy. We derive a relation…