Related papers: Valley Instanton versus Constrained Instanton
Recently there has been increasing interest in alternate methods to compute quantum tunneling in field theory. Of particular interest is a stochastic approach which involves (i) sampling from the free theory Gaussian approximation to the…
In a wide class of holographic models, like the one proposed by Sakai and Sugimoto, baryons can be approximated by instantons of non-abelian gauge fields that live on the world-volume of flavor D-branes. In the leading order, those are just…
We describe the simplest example of an instanton bag in Euclidean space. It consists of a monopole wall and a Kaluza-Klein monopole wall, lifted to one higher dimension, trapping the instanton charge in the middle. This object has finite…
We perform a detailed study of the existence and the properties of O(4)-invariant instanton solutions in Einstein-scalar theory in the presence of flat potential barriers, i.e. barriers where the second derivative of the potential is small…
Within the context of finding the initial conditions of the universe we consider gravitational instantons falling into the Bianchi IX classification. That is, a Euclidean four-manifold with a metric that satisfies Einstein's equations with…
Using the idea of the instanton approach to quantum tunneling we try to obtain a method of calculating spontaneous fission rates for nuclei with the odd number of neutrons or protons. This problem has its origin in the failure of the…
In abstract Yang-Mills theory the standard instanton construction relies on the Hodge star having real eigenvalues which makes it inapplicable in the Lorentzian case. We show that for the affine connection an instanton-type construction can…
We have been able to observe directly extended instantons on the lattice, with a new method that does not require dislocations to measure them, and where we do not perform cooling. We showed, based on the simple Abelian Higgs model in $1+1$…
We look for instanton solutions in a class of two scalar field gravity models, which includes the low energy string action in four dimensions. In models where the matter field has a potential with a false vacuum, we find that non-singular…
It is shown that the field strength formulated Yang-Mills theory yields the same semiclassics as the standard formulation in terms of the gauge potential. This concerns the classical instanton solutions as well as the quantum fluctuations…
Big bang nucleosynthesis constraints on baryon isocurvature perturbations are determined. A simple model ignoring the effects of the scale of the perturbations is first reviewed. This model is then extended to test the claim that large…
Conventional non-Abelian SO(4) gauge theory is able to describe gravity provided the gauge field possesses a specific polarized vacuum state in which the instantons have a preferred orientation. Their orientation plays the role of the order…
In this work, we critically reanalyze the explicit breaking of the Peccei-Quinn global symmetry -- and the corresponding corrections to the QCD axion potential -- induced by gravity. Specifically, we examine the role of gravitational…
A precise characterization of structures occurring in turbulent fluid flows at high Reynolds numbers is one of the last open problems of classical physics. In this review we discuss recent developments related to the application of…
This talk is a review of our studies of instantons and their properties as seen in our lattice simulations of SU(2) gauge theory. We have measured the topological susceptibility and the size distribution of instantons in the QCD vacuum. We…
A gauge invariant formulation for the massive axion is considered. The axion acquires mass through a topological term which couples a (pseudo)scalar and a third rank antisymmetric tensor. Duality, local and canonical equivalences with the…
In this talk, we compare two states: the stationary state in stochastic inflation and the ground state wave function of the universe. We already know that, for the potential with a static field, two pictures give the same probability…
We investigate instantons near a tachyonic top in an anti de Sitter (AdS) background. If the mass scale around the hill-top is above the Breitenlohner-Freedman (BF) bound, then the top is classically stable. When the BF bound is satisfied,…
Instantons and their quantisation in pure Yang-Mills theory formulated in the background of de Sitter spacetime represented by spatially-closed ($k = 1$) Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric are discussed. As for the classical treatment of the…
Using the theory of noncommutative geometry in a braided monoidal category, we improve upon a previous construction of noncommutative families of instantons of arbitrary charge on the deformed sphere S^4_\theta. We formulate a notion of…