Related papers: Vacuum decay and internal symmetries
We discuss particle production associated with vacuum decay, which changes the mass of a scalar field coupled to a background field which induces the decay. By utilizing the Stokes phenomenon, we can optimally track the time-evolution of…
The zero-bias tunneling resonance in quantum Hall bilayer systems is investigated via numerical simulations of the classical two dimensional XY model with a symmetry-breaking field. Disorder is included in the model, and is shown to…
The decay rate of the Bunch-Davies state of a massive scalar field in the expanding flat spatial sections of de Sitter space is determined by an analysis of the particle pair creation process in real time. The Feynman definition of particle…
We study the evolution of growing vacuum bubbles. The bubble walls interact with the surrounding fluid and may, consequently, reach a terminal velocity. If the mean free path of the particles in the fluid is much shorter than the bubble…
We present a systematic and unifying treatment of the problem of spontaneous nucleation of particle-antiparticle pairs in a (2+1)-dimensional system due to a static and uniform electromagnetic-like field, in the presence of quantum…
We study the propagation of bubbles of new vacuum in a radially inhomogeneous Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi background that includes a cosmological constant. This exemplifies the classical evolution of a tunneling bubble through a metastable state…
We compute bounce solutions describing false vacuum decay in a Phi**4 model in four dimensions with quantum back-reaction. The back-reaction of the quantum fluctuations on the bounce profiles is computed in the one-loop and Hartree…
We study the decay of the cosmological constant in two spacetime dimensions through production of pairs. We show that the same nucleation process looks as quantum mechanical tunneling (instanton) to one Killing observer and as thermal…
The vacuum decay in a de Sitter universe is studied within semiclassical approximation for the class of effective inflaton potentials whose curvature at the top is close to a critical value. By comparing the actions of the Hawking - Moss…
The action of the discrete symmetries on the scalar mode functions of the de Sitter spacetime is studied. The invariance with respect to a combination of discrete symmetries is put forward as a criterion to select a certain vacuum out of a…
We compute the decay rate of a metastable cosmic string in contact with a thermal bath by finding the instanton solution. The new feature is that this decay rate is found in the context of non thermal scalar fields in contact with a thermal…
Scalar field theory with an asymmetric potential is studied at zero temperature and high-temperature for $\phi^6$ potential. The equations of motion are solved numerically to obtain O(4) spherical symmetric and O(3) cylindrical symmetric…
We investigate theories of Nambu-Goldstone bosons where the spontaneously broken continuous symmetry is non-invertible. In such theories, the vacua generically parameterize an orbifold. We study in detail the simplest example of a single…
We investigate the macroscopic quantum tunneling of the attractive Bose-Einstein condensate. Within the effective Lagrangian framework, we find bounce solutions and explicitly calculate the decay rate of the condensate trapped in a…
In standard nucleation theory, the nucleation process is characterized by computing $\Delta\Omega(V)$, the reversible work required to form a cluster of volume $V$ of the stable phase inside the metastable mother phase. However, other…
Self-oscillations underlie many natural phenomena such as heartbeat, ocean waves, and the pulsation of variable stars. From pendulum clocks to the behavior of animal groups, self-oscillation is one of the keys to the understanding of…
We review some aspects of the dramatic consequences of supersymmetry breaking on string vacua. In particular, we focus on the issue of vacuum stability in ten-dimensional string models with broken, or without, supersymmetry, whose…
Effective theories of quantum liquids (superconductors and superfluids of various types) are derived starting from microscopic models at the absolute zero of temperature. Special care is taken to assure Galilei invariance. The effective…
Classical-statistical lattice simulations provide a useful approximation to out-of-equilibrium quantum field theory, but only for systems exhibiting large occupation numbers, and only for phenomena that are not intrinsically quantum…
One possible way in which phase transitions in the early universe may have ocurred is via nucleation of bubbles of the new phase (true vacuum) in the old phase (false vacuum). The technique most widely used to compute the probability of…