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

Journal Article · Fri Nov 15 04:00:00 EST 1991 · Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.44.3052· OSTI ID:5993583

Samuel, D A; Hiscock, W A ^[1]

---

1. Department of Physics, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana (USA)

The self-gravity of quantum fields is often considered to be a negligible perturbation upon a background spacetime and not of much physical interest. Its importance is determined by the ratio of the mass of the field to the Planck mass, this ratio being very small for those fields that we are most familiar in dealing with. However, it is conceivable that either in the very early Universe or even today a false-vacuum decay could occur associated with a field of appreciable mass. The effect of self-gravity upon false-vacuum decay was initially studied within the thin-wall'' approximation by Coleman and De Luccia. Their analysis involved the approximate solution of the coupled Euclideanized field and Einstein equations with the assumption of O(4)-symmetric bubble nucleation. In this paper we consider the range of validity of the thin-wall'' approximation by comparing the Coleman--De Luccia results with exact numerical results for a quartic polynomial potential. We also extend the analysis into regimes for which the thin-wall'' approximation is inapplicable. In the case of an initially de Sitter space decaying into Minkowski space, we find a smooth transition between the Coleman--De Luccia mode of bubble formation and the Hawking-Moss transition, wherein the entire spacetime tunnels at once'' to the maximum of the potential. In the case of the decay of an initially Minkowski space to an anti--de Sitter space, we find that there is a forbidden region'' of vacuum potential parameters for which decay is not possible. At energies far below the Planck scale, the boundary of this region is accurately described by the thin-wall prediction obtained by Coleman and De Luccia. At energies near the Planck scale, however, the actual forbidden region'' is significantly smaller than predicted by the thin-wall approximation; thus, vacuum decays are possible which appear to be forbidden by thin-wall calculations.

• OSTI ID: 5993583
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States) Vol. 44:10; ISSN PRVDA; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

661310 -- Relativity & Gravitation-- (1992-)
662110* -- General Theory of Particles & Fields-- Theory of Fields & Strings-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
BASIC INTERACTIONS
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
BUBBLE GROWTH
DYNAMICAL GROUPS
EINSTEIN FIELD EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS
EUCLIDEAN SPACE
FIELD EQUATIONS
FIELD THEORIES
GRAVITATIONAL INTERACTIONS
INTERACTIONS
LIE GROUPS
MATHEMATICAL SPACE
MINKOWSKI SPACE
NUCLEATION
O GROUPS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
RIEMANN SPACE
SPACE
SPACE-TIME
SYMMETRY GROUPS
UNIVERSE
VACUUM STATES