相关论文: Tools for Tunneling
We study analytically and numerically the decay of a metastable phase in (2+1)-dimensional classical scalar field theory coupled to a heat bath, which is equivalent to two-dimensional Euclidean quantum field theory at zero temperature. By a…
A standard approach to analyzing tunneling processes in various physical contexts is to use instanton or imaginary time path techniques. For systems in which the tunneling takes place in a time dependent setting, the standard methods are…
We develop semiclassical methods for studying bubble nucleation in models with parameters that vary slowly in time. Introducing a more general rotation of the time contour allows access to a larger set of final states, and typically a…
We explore the nature of a certain type of supercooled phase transition, where the supercooling is guaranteed to end due to the curvature of the finite-temperature effective potential at the origin experiencing a sign flip at some…
The scalar potential of the MSSM may have local and global minima characterized by non-zero expectation values of charged and colored bosons. Even if the true vacuum is not color and charge conserving, the early Universe is likely to occupy…
Motivated by the work of Mersini, the particle production related to the tunneling in false vacuum decay is carefully investigated in the thin-wall approximation. It is shown that in this case the particle production is exponentially…
We consider the Skyrme model modified by the addition of mass terms which explicitly break chiral symmetry and pick out a specific point on the model's target space as the unique true vacuum. However, they also allow the possibility of…
Vacuum decay posits that the universe's apparent vacuum is metastable and could transition to a lower-energy state. According to current physics models, if such a transition occurred in any location, a region of "true vacuum" would…
Systems that feature a scalar field $\phi$ with a quasi scale invariant potential, metastable at $\phi=0$, can remain trapped, during cosmic evolution, in the `wrong' vacuum because the process of bubble nucleation to the true vacuum is…
In the standard lore the decay of the false vacuum of a single-field potential is described by a semi-classical Euclidean bounce configuration that can be found using overshoot/undershoot algorithms, and whose action suppresses…
An expanding closed universe filled with radiation can either recollapse or tunnel to the regime of unbounded expansion, if the cosmological constant is nonzero. We re-examine the question of particle creation during tunneling, with the…
The metastable dark energy scenario is revisited by assuming that the current false vacuum energy density is the remnant from a primeval inflationary stage. The zero temperature scalar field potential is here described by an even power…
We study late-time acceleration scenarios using a quintessence field initially trapped in a metastable false vacuum state. The false vacuum has non-zero vacuum energy and could drive exponential expansion if not coupled with gravity. Upon…
We study the decay of a thermally excited metastable vacuum in classical field theory using real-time numerical simulations. We find a significantly lower decay rate than predicted by standard thermal theory at moderate temperatures,…
We study thermal effects on a decay process of a false vacuum in type IIA string theory. At finite temperature, the potential of the theory is corrected and also thermally excited modes enhance the decay rate. The false vacuum can…
We introduce a new picture of vacuum decay which, in contrast to existing semiclassical techniques, provides a real-time description and does not rely on classically-forbidden tunneling paths. Using lattice simulations, we observe vacuum…
Theories with compact extra dimensions are sometimes unstable to decay into a bubble of nothing -- an instability resulting in the destruction of spacetime. We investigate the existence of these bubbles in theories where the moduli fields…
We numerically study the dynamics of false vacuum bubbles which are inside an almost flat background; we assumed spherical symmetry and the size of the bubble is smaller than the size of the background horizon. According to the thin shell…
The false vacuum decay has been a central theme in physics for half a century with applications to cosmology and to the theory of fundamental interactions. This fascinating phenomenon is even more intriguing when combined with the…
Properties of unstable false vacuum states are analyzed from the point of view of the quantum theory of unstable states. Some of false vacuum states survive up to times when their survival probability has a non-exponential form. At times…