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Summary: Volume 131B, number 1,2,3 PHYSICS LETTERS 10 November 1983
HOMOGENEOUS TRANSITIONS IN AN INFLATING UNIVERSE *
L.F. ABBOTF and C.J.C. BURGES
Physics Department, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02254, USA
Received 29 June 1983
We consider homogeneous field transitions in a background de Sitter space by reducing the field theory to an
equivalent quantum-mechanics problem. These transitions prevent spontaneous symmetry breaking from occurring in de
Sitter space. We apply our formalism to the Hawking-Moss transition in the new inflationary cosmology.
1. Introduction. In the inflationary cos-
mology [1], phase transitions occurring in an
approximately de Sitter nature of the universe
during the inflationary period can have an im-
portant impact on these transitions. For exam-
ple, transitions can occur which are homo-
geneous across an entire spacelike surface as
first discussed by Hawking and Moss [2]. In this
paper, we study homogeneous transitions in a
background de Sitter space. We show that they
can be analyzed by reducing the four-dimen-
sional field theory to an equivalent one-dimen-
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