Related papers: Nucleation Rates in Flat and Curved Space
We analyze vacuum tunneling in quantum field theory in a general formalism by using the Wigner representation. In the standard instanton formalism, one usually approximates the initial false vacuum state by an eigenstate of the field…
We compute correlation functions of the primordial density perturbations when they couple to a gapless, strongly coupled sector of spectator fields -- ``unparticles" -- during inflation. We first derive a four-point function of conformally…
We revisit the possibility of producing observable tensor modes through a continuous particle production process during inflation. Particularly, we focus on the multi-field realization of inflation where a spectator pseudo-scalar $\sigma$…
It is proposed that if quantum states of space-time are coherent on null surfaces, holographic Planck-scale fluctuations of inflationary horizons dominate the formation of primordial scalar curvature perturbations. It is shown that the…
We examine the role of using symmetry and effective field theory in inflationary model building. We describe the standard formulation of starting with an approximate shift symmetry for a scalar field, and then introducing corrections…
The cosmological particle production in a $k=0$ expanding de Sitter universe with a Hubble parameter $H_0$ is considered for various values of mass or conformal coupling of a free, scalar field. One finds that, for a minimally coupled field…
We use analytic estimates and numerical simulations to explore the stochastic approach to vacuum decay. According to this approach, the time derivative of a scalar field, which is in a local vacuum state, develops a large fluctuation and…
We calculate analytically the bubble nucleation rate in a model of first order inflation which is able to produce large scale structure. The computation includes the first-order departure from the thin-wall limit, the explicit derivation of…
We provide a field-theoretical description of thermal nucleation in a one-dimensional ferromagnetic superfluid, a quantum-gas analogue of false-vacuum decay. The rate at which ground-state domains nucleate follows an Arrhenius law, with an…
We review the results of a model of how nucleation of a new universe occurs, assuming a di quark identification for soliton-anti soliton constituent parts of a scalar field. The intial potential system employed is semi classical in nature,…
We study real-time nucleation in perturbative high-temperature quantum field theories. Specifically, we incorporate the evolution of thermally fluctuating plasma driven out of equilibrium by nucleation. This plasma forms the thermal bath…
Interacting massive fields with m > d H/2 in d+1 dimensional de Sitter space are fundamentally unstable. Scalar fields in this mass range can decay to themselves. This process (which is kinematically forbidden in Minkowski space) can lead…
We revisit the problem of spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB), its restoration, and phase transition for a self interacting quantum scalar field in a general curved background, at zero and finite temperature. To the best of our knowledge,…
The physics of the inflationary universe requires the study of the out of equilibrium evolution of quantum fields in curved spacetime. We present the evolution for both the geometry and the matter (described by the quantum inflaton field)…
For an arbitrary quantum field in flat space with a planar boundary, an entropy of entanglement, associated with correlations across the boundary, is present when the field is in its vacuum state. The vacuum state of the same quantum field…
In F-term supergravity inflation models, scalar fields other than the inflaton generically receive a Hubble induced mass, which may restore gauge symmetries during inflation and phase transitions may occur during or after inflation as the…
Using numerical and analytic methods, we study quantum tunneling from a Minkowski false vacuum to an anti-de Sitter true vacuum. Scanning the parameter space of theories with quartic and non-polynomial potentials, we find that for any given…
We discuss model building in tribrid inflation, which is a framework for realising inflation in the matter sector of supersymmetric particle physics models. The inflaton is a D-flat combination of matter fields, and inflation ends by a…
Deuteron coalescence, during relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions, is carried out in a model incorporating a minimal quantal treatment of the formation of the cluster from its individual nucleons by evaluating the overlap of intial…
We first develop a method to calculate a complete set of mode functions which describe the quantum fluctuations generated in one-bubble open inflation models. We consider two classes of models. One is a single scalar field model proposed by…