English

Instantons from Perturbation Theory

High Energy Physics - Theory 2018-02-01 v2 Mathematical Physics math.MP Quantum Physics

Abstract

In quantum mechanics and quantum field theory perturbation theory generically requires the inclusion of extra contributions non-perturbative in the coupling, such as instantons, to reproduce exact results. We show how full non-perturbative results can be encoded in a suitable modified perturbative series in a class of quantum mechanical problems. We illustrate this explicitly in examples which are known to contain non-perturbative effects, such as the (supersymmetric) double-well potential, the pure anharmonic oscillator, and the perturbative expansion around a false vacuum.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1612.04376,
  title  = {Instantons from Perturbation Theory},
  author = {Marco Serone and Gabriele Spada and Giovanni Villadoro},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.04376},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

4 pages, 1 figure; v2: minor corrections and improvements, ref. added

R2 v1 2026-06-22T17:22:50.255Z