THE FATE OF THE FALSE VACUUM IN EINSTEIN GRAVITY THEORY WITH NONMINIMALLY-COUPLED SCALAR FIELD

The decay of false vacuum via the true vacuum bubble nucleation has been explored in Einstein theories of gravity with nonminimally-coupled scalar field using Coleman–De Luccia's semiclassical instanton approximation. In this case the false vacuum decay rates and the radius of the bubbles in Coleman's thin-wall approximation have been computed analytically and numerically with several values of nonminimal coupling constant and compared with the standard result obtained by Coleman–De Luccia in the context of scalar field minimally-coupled to Einstein gravity.

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Effect of gravity on false-vacuum decay rates for O(4)-symmetric bubble nucleation

Physical Review D ◽

10.1103/physrevd.44.3052 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 44 (10) ◽

pp. 3052-3061 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

David A. Samuel ◽

William A. Hiscock

Keyword(s):

Bubble Nucleation ◽

Decay Rates ◽

False Vacuum ◽

Vacuum Decay

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On catalyzed vacuum decay around a radiating black hole and the crisis of the electroweak vacuum

Journal of High Energy Physics ◽

10.1007/jhep08(2020)088 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 (8) ◽

Author(s):

Takumi Hayashi ◽

Kohei Kamada ◽

Naritaka Oshita ◽

Jun’ichi Yokoyama

Keyword(s):

Black Hole ◽

Scalar Field ◽

Standard Model ◽

Decay Rate ◽

Early Universe ◽

Hawking Radiation ◽

False Vacuum ◽

Vacuum Decay ◽

Higgs Vacuum ◽

The Standard Model

Abstract False vacuum decay is a key feature in quantum field theories and exhibits a distinct signature in the early Universe cosmology. It has recently been suggested that the false vacuum decay is catalyzed by a black hole (BH), which might cause the catastrophe of the Standard Model Higgs vacuum if primordial BHs are formed in the early Universe. We investigate vacuum phase transition of a scalar field around a radiating BH with taking into account the effect of Hawking radiation. We find that the vacuum decay rate slightly decreases in the presence of the thermal effect since the scalar potential is stabilized near the horizon. However, the stabilization effect becomes weak at the points sufficiently far from the horizon. Consequently, we find that the decay rate is not significantly changed unless the effective coupling constant of the scalar field to the radiation is extremely large. This implies that the change of the potential from the Hawking radiation does not help prevent the Standard Model Higgs vacuum decay catalyzed by a BH.

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Numerical analysis of Coleman–de Luccia tunneling

International Journal of Modern Physics A ◽

10.1142/s0217751x16501311 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 31 (24) ◽

pp. 1650131 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Yuhei Goto ◽

Kazumi Okuyama

Keyword(s):

Decay Constant ◽

Periodic Potential ◽

Thin Wall ◽

False Vacuum ◽

Vacuum Decay ◽

Text Type ◽

Axion Decay Constant ◽

Axion Decay ◽

Range Of Values ◽

Type Potential

In this paper, we study the false vacuum decay of a single scalar field [Formula: see text] coupled to gravity described by the Coleman–de Luccia (CdL) instanton. We show that it is possible to numerically calculate the bounce factor, which is related to the CdL tunneling rate, without using the thin-wall approximation. In this paper, we consider [Formula: see text]- and [Formula: see text]-type potentials as examples, which have cosmological and phenomenological applications. Especially, in the [Formula: see text]-type potential, we show that the range of values in which axion decay constant can take is restricted by the form of the periodic potential if the CdL tunneling occurs.

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OSCILLATING INSTANTONS AS HOMOGENEOUS TUNNELING CHANNELS

International Journal of Modern Physics A ◽

10.1142/s0217751x13500826 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 28 (18) ◽

pp. 1350082 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

BUM-HOON LEE ◽

WONWOO LEE ◽

DONG-HAN YEOM

Keyword(s):

Scalar Field ◽

Local Minimum ◽

Local Maximum ◽

Einstein Gravity ◽

Scale Factor ◽

The Other ◽

Vacuum Decay ◽

General Vacuum

In this paper, we study Einstein gravity with a minimally coupled scalar field accompanied with a potential, assuming an O(4) symmetric metric ansatz. We call an Euclidean instanton is to be an oscillating instanton, if there exists a point where the derivative of the scale factor and the scalar field vanish at the same time. Then, we can prove that the oscillating instanton can be analytically continued, both as inhomogeneous and homogeneous tunneling channels. Here, we especially focus on the possibility of a homogeneous tunneling channel. For the existence of such an instanton, we have to assume three things: (1) there should be a local maximum and the curvature of the maximum should be sufficiently large, (2) there should be a local minimum and (3) the other side of the potential should have a sufficiently deeper vacuum. Then, we can show that there exists a number of oscillating instanton solutions and their probabilities are higher compared to the Hawking–Moss instantons. We also check the possibility when the oscillating instantons are comparable with the Coleman–de Luccia channels. Thus, for a general vacuum decay problem, we should not ignore the oscillating instanton channels.

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COLEMAN–DE LUCCIA TUNNELING AND THE GIBBONS–HAWKING TEMPERATURE

International Journal of Modern Physics A ◽

10.1142/s0217751x10047981 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 25 (05) ◽

pp. 1019-1060 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

S.-H. HENRY TYE ◽

DANIEL WOHNS ◽

YANG ZHANG

Keyword(s):

Quantum Tunneling ◽

Field Potential ◽

Thermal Fluctuation ◽

Hawking Temperature ◽

Vacuum Energy Density ◽

Thin Wall ◽

False Vacuum ◽

De Sitter ◽

Tunneling Process ◽

True Vacuum

We study Coleman–de Luccia tunneling in some detail. We show that, for a single scalar field potential with a true and a false vacuum, there are four types of tunneling, depending on the properties of the potential. A general tunneling process involves a combination of thermal (Gibbons–Hawking temperature) fluctuation part way up the barrier followed by quantum tunneling. The thin-wall approximation is a special limit of the case (of only quantum tunneling) where inside the nucleation bubble is the true vacuum while the outside reaches the false vacuum. Hawking–Moss tunneling is the (only thermal fluctuation) limit of the case where the inside of the bubble does not reach the true vacuum at the moment of its creation, and the outside is cut off by the de Sitter horizon before it reaches the false vacuum. A typical tunneling process is a combination of thermal and quantum tunnelings. We estimate the tunneling rate for this case and find that the corrections to the Hawking–Moss formula can be large. In all cases, we see that the Euclidean action of the bounce decreases rapidly as the vacuum energy density increases, signaling that the tunneling is not exponentially suppressed. This phenomenon may be interpreted as a finite temperature effect due to the Gibbons–Hawking temperature of the de Sitter space. As an application, we discuss the implication of this tunneling property to the cosmic landscape.

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PARTICLE PRODUCTION RELATED TO THE TUNNELING IN FALSE VACUUM DECAY

Modern Physics Letters A ◽

10.1142/s0217732303010806 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 18 (14) ◽

pp. 993-1000 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

MICHAEL MAZIASHVILI

Keyword(s):

Particle Production ◽

Thin Wall ◽

False Vacuum ◽

Vacuum Decay

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 suppressed even when the momentum is comparable to the curvature scale of the bubble. The number of created particles is ultraviolet finite.

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