Related papers: Analytical approach to the transition to thermal h…
The nature of the transition from quantum tunneling at low temperatures to thermal hopping at high temperatures is investigated in a scalar field theory with cubic symmetry breaking. The bounce solution which interpolates between the…
The temperature dependance of the action in the thin-wall and thick-wall limits is obtained analytically for the $\phi^6$ scalar potential. The nature of the phase transition is investigated from the quantum tunnelling regime at low…
We construct the thermal bounce solution in holographic models that describes first-order phase transitions between the deconfined and confined phases in strongly-coupled gauge theories. This new, periodic Euclidean solution represents…
We investigate the metastability of scalar fields in quantum field theories at finite temperature, focusing on a detailed understanding of the bounce solution. At finite temperature, the bounce solution depends on two variables: the…
Hydrogen diffusion on metals exhibits rich quantum behavior, which is not yet fully understood. Using simulations, we show that many hydrogen diffusion barriers can be categorized into those with "parabolic-tops" and those with…
At high temperatures a four dimensional field theory is reduced to a three dimensional field theory. In this letter we consider the $\phi^4$ theory whose parameters are chosen so that a thermal phase transition occurs at a high temperature.…
This is the first in a series of papers where we study the dynamics of a bubble wall beyond usual approximations, such as the assumptions of spherical bubbles and infinitely thin walls. In this paper, we consider a vacuum phase transition.…
The crossover from thermal hopping to quantum tunneling is studied. We show that the decay rate $\Gamma$ with dissipation can accurately be determined near the crossover temperature. Besides considering the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB)…
In flat space and at finite temperature, there are two regimes of false vacuum decay in quantum field theory. At low temperature, the decay proceeds through thermally-assisted tunneling described by periodic Euclidean solutions -- bounces…
The many-body physics at quantum phase transitions shows a subtle interplay between quantum and thermal fluctuations, emerging in the low-temperature limit. In this review, we first give a pedagogical introduction to the equilibrium…
In attempt to settle the apparent disagreements between different experimental results, transport data near quantum Hall transitions are interpreted by identifying two distinct conduction regimes. The ``classical'' regime, dominated by…
A quantum system can undergo a continuous phase transition at the absolute zero of temperature as some parameter entering its Hamiltonian is varied. These transitions are particularly interesting for, in contrast to their classical finite…
A quantum system in contact with a heat bath undergoes quantum transitions between energy levels upon absorption or emission of energy quanta by the bath. These transitions remain virtual unless the energy of the system is measured…
Any evolving system can change of state via thermal mechanisms (hopping a barrier) or via quantum tunneling. Most of the time, efficient classical mechanisms dominate at high temperatures. This is why an increase of the temperature can…
Thermal transport in solids changes its nature from phonon propagation that suffers from perturbative scattering to thermally activated hops between localized vibrational modes as the level of disorder increases. Models have been proposed…
We have measured the temperature dependence of the longitudinal resistivity $% \rho_{xx}$ of a two-dimensional electron system in the regime of the quantum Hall plateau transition. We extracted the quantitative form of scaling function for…
The theory of false vacuum decay in a thermal system may have a cross-over from predominantly thermal transitions to quantum transitions as the temperature is decreased. New numerical methods and results are presented here that can be used…
We propose a new approach for computing tunneling rates in quantum or thermal field theory with multiple scalar fields. It is based on exact analytical solutions of piecewise linear potentials with many segments that describes any given…
The scaling physics of quantum Hall transport in optimized topological insulators with a plateau precision of ~1/1000 e2/h is considered. Two exponential scaling regimes are observed in temperature-dependent transport dissipation, one of…
In these notes, the application of Feynman's sum-over-paths approach to thermal phase transitions is discussed. The paradigm of such a spacetime approach to critical phenomena is provided by the high-temperature expansion of spin models.…