Related papers: Worldline Instantons II: The Fluctuation Prefactor
We show how to do semiclassical nonperturbative computations within the worldline approach to quantum field theory using ``worldline instantons''. These worldline instantons are classical solutions to the Euclidean worldline loop equations…
We show how to do semiclassical nonperturbative computations within the worldline approach to quantum field theory using ``worldline instantons''. These worldline instantons are classical solutions to the Euclidean worldline loop equations…
We describe in detail a physical situation in which instantons are necessarily complex, not just Wick rotations of classical solutions to Euclidean spacetime. These complex instantons arise in the semiclassical evaluation of vacuum pair…
The imaginary part of the one loop effective action in external backgrounds can be efficiently computed using worldline instantons which are closed periodic paths in spacetime. Exact solutions for nonstatic backgrounds are only known in…
A detailed study of the semiclassical expansion of the world line path integral for a charged relativistic particle in a constant external electric field is presented. We show that the Schwinger formula for charged particle pair production…
The semiclassical approximation of the worldline path integral is a powerful tool to study nonperturbative electron-positron pair creation in spacetime-dependent background fields. Finding solutions of the classical equations of motion,…
We consider the quantum creation of a closed universe within the Euclidean path-integral formalism. An analytical expression for the tunneling probability is derived, including both the exponential suppression and the exact Gaussian…
We develop a worldline-instanton approach for calculating the momentum spectrum of particles produced by gravitational fields which depend on both space and time. The instantons are open. The middle part is complex and describes the…
We extend the worldline instanton technique to compute the vacuum pair production rate for spatially inhomogeneous electric background fields, with the spatial inhomogeneity being genuinely two or three dimensional, both for the magnitude…
We develop a new semiclassical approach, which starts with the density matrix given by the Euclidean time path integral with fixed coinciding endpoints, and proceed by identifying classical (minimal Euclidean action) path, to be referred to…
The usual description of inflationary fluctuations uses the framework of quantum field theory (QFT) in curved spacetime, in which quantum fluctuations are superimposed on a classical background spacetime. Even for large fluctuations, such…
We review the euclidean path-integral formalism in connection with the one-dimensional non-relativistic particle. The configurations which allow to construct a semiclassical approximation classify themselves into either topological…
The prefactor of the activated dissipative conductivity in a plateau range of the quantum Hall effect is studied in the case of a long-range random potential. It is shown that due to long time it takes for an electron to drift along the…
For many non-equilibrium dynamics driven by small noise, in physics, chemistry, biology, or economy, rare events do matter. Large deviation theory then explains that the leading order term of the main statistical quantities have an…
We report on the status of the string-inspired world line path integral formalism, a recently developed powerful tool for the reorganisation of standard perturbative amplitudes in quantum field theory. The method is outlined and the present…
The worldline formalism is a useful scheme in quantum field theory which has also become a powerful tool for numerical computations. The key ingredient in this formalism is the first quantization of an auxiliary point-particle whose…
We explore the relation between the quantum and semiclassical instanton approximations for the reaction rate constant. From the quantum instanton expression, we analyze the contributions to the rate constant in terms of minimum-action paths…
This is the second paper on semiclassical approach based on the density matrix given by the Euclidean time path integral with fixed coinciding endpoints. The classical path, interpolating between this point and the classical vacuum, called…
We compute, from first principles, the quantum fluctuations about instanton saddle points of the Euclidean path integral for Einstein gravity coupled to a scalar field. The Euclidean two-point correlator is analytically continued into the…
The semiclassical Euclidean path integral method is applied to compute the low temperature quantum decay rate for a particle placed in the metastable minimum of a cubic potential in a {\it finite} time theory. The classical path, which…