Positive curvature and scalar field tunneling in the landscape
Abstract
We present a model of vacuum tunneling through a classically forbidden region where a scalar field changes its value simultaneously over the entire volume of a (meta)stable ancestor vacuum with spherical curvature. The tunneling leaves the geometry unchanged but rearranges the energetic contributions of the matter sources, leading to an inflating solution with residual positive curvature. We show that there exists a parametric regime where this solution is self-consistent and dominates the overall tunneling rate. We conclude that an experimental detection of positive curvature, while not necessarily likely, therefore does not rule out the possibility that our present observer patch originated from semiclassical vacuum tunneling in a string or field theoretic landscape.
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States); Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1491777
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1610195
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FG02-92ER40699; SC001194; SC0009919; NNX10AN14G; PHY-1620610
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review D
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Physical Review D Journal Volume: 99 Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; astronomy & astrophysics; physics; evolution of the Universe; field & string theory models & techniques; quantum field in curved spacetime
Citation Formats
Horn, Bart. Positive curvature and scalar field tunneling in the landscape. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.99.025010.
Horn, Bart. Positive curvature and scalar field tunneling in the landscape. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.99.025010
Horn, Bart. Wed .
"Positive curvature and scalar field tunneling in the landscape". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.99.025010.
@article{osti_1491777,
title = {Positive curvature and scalar field tunneling in the landscape},
author = {Horn, Bart},
abstractNote = {We present a model of vacuum tunneling through a classically forbidden region where a scalar field changes its value simultaneously over the entire volume of a (meta)stable ancestor vacuum with spherical curvature. The tunneling leaves the geometry unchanged but rearranges the energetic contributions of the matter sources, leading to an inflating solution with residual positive curvature. We show that there exists a parametric regime where this solution is self-consistent and dominates the overall tunneling rate. We conclude that an experimental detection of positive curvature, while not necessarily likely, therefore does not rule out the possibility that our present observer patch originated from semiclassical vacuum tunneling in a string or field theoretic landscape.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevD.99.025010},
journal = {Physical Review D},
number = 2,
volume = 99,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {1}
}
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.99.025010
Web of Science
Figures / Tables:

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