Vacuum tunneling and fluctuations around a most probable escape path

Bitar, Khalil M.; Chang, Shau‐Jin

doi:10.1103/physrevd.18.435

Cited by 44 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…In order to understand quantum tunneling in multidimensional space, one must search for the configurations that extremize the classical action in imaginary (euclidean) time. These configurations constitute the "most probable escape path" [25,26], and are solutions to the classical equations of motion in euclidean time [27], dubbed "bounces" [28][29][30][31][32].…”

Section: Decay Via Quantum Tunnelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polarons as nucleation droplets in nondegenerate polymers

1994

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We present a study of the nucleation mechanism that allows the decay of the metastable phase (trans-cisoid) to the stable phase (cis-transoid) in quasi one-dimensional non-degenerate polymers within the continuum electronphonon model. The electron-phonon configurations that lead to the decay, i.e. the critical droplets (or transition state), are identified as polarons of the metastable phase. We obtain an estimate for the decay rate via thermal activation within a range of parameters consistent with experimental values for the gap of the cis-configuration. It is pointed out that, upon doping, the activation barriers of the excited states are quite smaller and the decay rate is greatly enhanced. Typical activation energies for electron or hole polarons are ≈ 0.1 eV and the typical size for a critical droplet (polaron) is about 1 20Å. Decay via quantum nucleation is also studied and it is found that the crossover temperature between quantum nucleation and thermal activation is of order T c ≤ 40 o K. Metastable configurations of non-degenerate polymers may provide examples for mesoscopic quantum tunneling.pacs No:71.10.+x;71.20.Hk;64.60.My

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Section: Decay Via Quantum Tunnelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polarons as nucleation droplets in nondegenerate polymers

1994

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“…Equation (II.8) can be written in a more suggestive form by using the definition of a MPEP. In order to do so, consider [22,23] a curve Q(λ) parametrized by λ and notice that, in the classically-forbidden region, we have…”

Section: Wkb For Arbitrary Hamiltoniansmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[22,23]. Crucially, we will allow for a general enough kinetic structure for our formalism to cover all Lorentz-invariant scalar-field theories with equations of motion that are second order, and therefore avoid the Ostrogradski ghost instability.…”

Section: Wkb In a General Scalar Quantum Field Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

WKB approximation and tunneling in theories with noncanonical kinetic terms

González¹,

Masoumi²,

Solomon³

et al. 2017

Phys. Rev. D

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Tunneling is a fascinating aspect of quantum mechanics that renders the local minima of a potential meta-stable, with important consequences for particle physics, for the early hot stage of the universe, and more speculatively, for the behavior of the putative multiverse. While this phenomenon has been studied extensively for systems which have canonical kinetic terms, many theories of fundamental physics contain fields with non-canonical kinetic structures. It is therefore desirable to have a detailed framework for calculating tunneling rates and initial states after tunneling for these theories. In this work we present such a rigorous formulation and illustrate its use by applying it to a number of examples.

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“…Banks, Bender and Wu [17] extended the simple WKB tunneling picture in QM involving one degree of freedom to multiple degrees of freedom. Others [18,19] extended the analysis to an infinite dimensional configuration space (QFT). The main idea underlying this extension from QM to QFT is that within the purview of the semiclassical approximation, tunneling under a barrier occurs in a tubular region within the infinite dimensional configuration space which can be described as a solution to a Euclidean classical equation of motion.…”

Section: Resonance Tunnelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the semiclassical approximation one can describe resonance tunneling in QFT models of the landscape. To this end, we use the methods developed by Ref [17][18][19] to study quantum tunneling in QFT. We discuss the importance of coherence for resonance tunneling to take place in a certain part of the landscape.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid Tunneling and Percolation in the Landscape

Sarangi

Shiu

Shlaer

2009

Int. J. Mod. Phys. A

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Motivated by the possibility of a string landscape, we reexamine tunneling of a scalar field across single/multiple barriers. Recent investigations have suggested modifications to the usual picture of false vacuum decay that lead to efficient and rapid tunneling in the landscape when certain conditions are met. This can be due to stringy effects (e.g. tunneling via the DBI action), or by effects arising due to the presence of multiple vacua (e.g. resonance tunneling). In this paper we discuss both DBI tunneling and resonance tunneling. We provide a QFT treatment of resonance tunneling using the Schrödinger functional approach. We also show how DBI tunneling for supercritical barriers can naturally lead to conditions suitable for resonance tunneling. We argue using basic ideas from percolation theory that tunneling can be rapid in a landscape where a typical vacuum has multiple decay channels and discuss various cosmological implications. This rapidity vacuum decay can happen even if there are no resonance/DBI tunneling enhancements, solely due to the presence of a large number of decay channels. Finally, we consider various ways of circumventing a recent no-go theorem for resonance tunneling in quantum field theory.

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Vacuum tunneling and fluctuations around a most probable escape path

Cited by 44 publications

References 18 publications

Polarons as nucleation droplets in nondegenerate polymers

Polarons as nucleation droplets in nondegenerate polymers

WKB approximation and tunneling in theories with noncanonical kinetic terms

Rapid Tunneling and Percolation in the Landscape

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