Holography of AdS vacuum bubbles

Abstract

We consider the fate of AdS vacua connected by tunneling events. A precise holographic dual of thin-walled Coleman-de Luccia bounces is proposed in terms of Fubini instantons in an unstable CFT. This proposal is backed by several qualitative and quantitative checks, including the precise calculation of the instanton action appearing in evaluating the decay rate. Big crunches manifest themselves as time dependent processes which reach the boundary of field space in a finite time. The infinite energy difference involved is identified on the boundary and highlights the ill-defined nature of the bulk setup. We propose a qualitative scenario in which the crunch is resolved by stabilizing the CFT, so that all attempts at crunching always end up shielded from the boundary by the formation of black hole horizons. In all these well defined bulk processes the configurations have the same asymptotics and are finite energy excitations.

De Sitter cosmology on an expanding bubble

“…First, an understanding of the nucleation process from the perspective of the dual field theory living on the boundary of AdS, second, a CFT description of the expansion of the bubble universe and the energy cost thereof and third, the effective field theory on the bubble universe itself. In [38], a holographic field theory dual to Coleman-de Luccia [25] bubble was proposed in terms of an instanton action in the scalar sector of an unstable deformed CFT. This duality was established by matching the decay rates in the bulk and the boundary instanton actions.…”

Holographic complexity and spacetime singularities

“…more microscopic specification of these models, narrow walls between AdS backgrounds can be realized in terms of probe D-branes, along the lines of [41][42][43]. In these constructions, one has N + − N − N + , so that − differs from + = 1 by 1/N effects.…”

Zoology of instanton solutions in flat potential barriers

“…Later Fubini instantons were rediscovered several times [28,29]. They describe tunneling without barrier [29][30][31], and have applications in particle physics as well as in the context of the AdS/CFT conjecture [32][33][34][35]. Moreover, it was suggested [36] that Fubini vacua can be used as classical de Sitter vacua.…”