Some false vacua do not decay via bounces. This usually happens when a flat direction of the tunneling action due to scale invariance is lifted to a sloping valley by a scale breaking perturbation, pushing the bounce off to infinity. We compare two types of alternative decay configurations that have been proposed recently to describe decay in such cases: pseudo-bounces and new instantons. Although both field configurations are quite similar, we find that the pseudo-bounce action is lower than the new instanton one and describes more faithfully the bottom of the action valley. In addition, pseudo-bounces cover a range of field space wider than new instantons and, as a result, lead to an action that can be lower than the one for new instantons by orders of magnitude.
We identify a new class of UV-complete instanton solutions that describe the false vacuum\- decay of a real scalar field in a particular curved spacetime background. To this end, we consider a simple scalar theory with a Coleman potential and calculate the Euclidean action $S_{\text{E}}$ by assuming an O(4)-symmetric curved spacetime. The function $a(r)$ dictating the geometry of spacetime may consistently be chosen to be a constant, thereby eliminating the drag forces from the equations of motion and ensuring that the gravitational backgrounds of both the false vacuum and bounce solutions are…
Behavior of the Euclidean path integral at large orders of the perturbation series is studied. When the model allows tunneling, the path-integral functional in the zero instanton sector is known to be dominated by bounce-like configurations at large order of the perturbative series, which causes non-convergence of the series. We find that in addition to this bounce the perturbative functional has a subleading peak at the instanton and anti-instanton pair, and its sum reproduces the non-perturbative valley.
For models of gravity coupled to hyperbolic sigma models, such as the metric-scalar sector of IIB supergravity, we show how smooth trajectories in the `augmented target space' connect FLRW cosmologies to non-extremal D-instantons through a cosmological singularity. In particular, we find closed cyclic universes that undergo an endless sequence of big-bang to big-crunch cycles separated by instanton `phases'. We also find `big-bounce' universes in which a collapsing closed universe bounces off its cosmological singularity to become an open expanding universe.
We study the semiclassical fluctuation problem around bounce solutions for a self-interacting scalar field in curved space. As in flat space, the fluctuation problem separates into partial waves labeled by an integer l, and we determine the large l behavior of the fluctuation determinants, a quantity needed to define a finite fluctuation prefactor. We also show that while the Coleman-De Luccia bounce solution has a single negative mode in the l=0 sector, the oscillating bounce solutions also have negative modes in partial waves higher than the s-wave, further evidence that they are not directl…
A Fubini instanton is a bounce solution which describes the decay of a vacuum state located at the top of the tachyonic potential {\it via} the tunneling without a barrier. We investigate various types of Fubini instantons of a self-gravitating scalar field under a tachyonic quartic potential. With gravity taken into account, we show there exist various types of unexpected solutions including oscillating bounce solutions. We present numerically oscillating Fubini bounce solutions in anti-de Sitter and de Sitter spaces. We construct the parametric phase diagrams of the solutions, which is the e…
The false vacua of some potentials do not decay via Euclidean bounces. This typically happens for tunneling actions with a flat direction (in field configuration space) that is lifted by a perturbation into a sloping valley, pushing the bounce off to infinity. Using three different approaches we find a consistent picture for such decays. In the Euclidean approach the bottom of the action valley consists of a family of pseudo-bounces (field configurations with some key good properties of bounces except extremizing the action). The pseudo-bounce result is validated by minimizing a WKB action in …
Ekpyrotic instantons describe the emergence of classical contracting universes out of the no-boundary quantum state. However, up to now these instantons ended in a big crunch singularity. We remedy this by adding a higher-derivative term, allowing a ghost condensate to form. This causes a smooth, non-singular bounce from the contracting phase into an expanding, kinetic-dominated phase. Remarkably, and although there is a non-trivial evolution during the bounce, the wavefunction of the universe is "classical" in a WKB sense just as much after the bounce as before. These new non-singular instant…
Static oscillating bounces in Schwarzschild de Sitter spacetime are investigated. The oscillating bounce with many oscillations gives a super-thick bubble wall, for which the total vacuum energy increases while the mass of the black hole decreases due to the conservation of Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) mass. We show that the transition rate of such an "up-tunneling" consuming the seed black hole is higher than that of the Hawking-Moss transition. The correspondence of analyses in the static and global coordinates in the Euclidean de Sitter space is also investigated.
We review the euclidean path-integral formalism in connection with the one-dimensional non-relativistic particle. The configurations which allow to construct a semiclassical approximation classify themselves into either topological (instantons) and non-topological (bounces) solutions. The quantum amplitudes consist on an exponential associated with the classical contribution multiplied by the fluctuation factor which is given by a functional determinant. The eigenfunctions as well as the energy eigenvalues of the quadratic operators at issue can be written in closed form due to the shape-invar…
For a scalar theory whose classical scale invariance is broken by quantum effects, we compute self-consistent bounce solutions and Green's functions. Deriving analytic expressions, we find that the latter are similar to the Green's functions in the archetypal thin-wall model for tunneling between quasi-degenerate vacua. The eigenmodes and eigenspectra are, however, very different. Large infrared effects from the modes of low angular momentum $j=0$ and $j=1$, which include the approximate dilatational modes for $j=0$, are dealt with by a resummation of one-loop effects. For a parametric example…
We study the instantons (or bounces) in the Brown-Teitelboim (BT) mechanism of relaxation of cosmological constant which is a cosmological version of the Schwinger mechanism. The BT mechanism is a false vacuum decay of (A)dS$_{d+1}$ (and $R^{1, d}$) spaces via spontaneous nucleations of spherical $(d-1)$-branes and thus ostensibly has bearings on (A)dS$_{d+1}$/CFT$_d$ holography. In this paper we focus on the four-dimensional case, although the higher or lower-dimensional generalization is straightforward. As is the case with pair productions near black hole and de Sitter horizons, we show tha…
We show how to find explicit expressions for rigid string instantons for general 4-manifold $M$. It appears that they are pseudo-holomorphic curves in the twistor space of $M$. We present explicit formulae for $M=R^4, S^4$. We discuss their properties and speculate on relations to topology of 4-manifolds and the theory of Yang-Mills fields.
We extend the use of Configurational Information Measures (CIMSs) to instantons and vacuum decay in arbitrary spatial dimensions. We find that both the complexity and the information content in the shape of instanton solutions have distinct regions of behavior in parameter space, discriminating between qualitative thin and thick wall profiles. For Euclidean spaces of dimension $D$, we show that for $D \gt 6$ instantons undergo a qualitative change of behavior from their lower- dimensional counterparts, indicating that $D=6$ is a critical dimension. We also find a scaling law relating the diffe…
We present a new class of complex instantons in the context of ekpyrotic cosmological theories. These instantons, which satisfy the "no-boundary" boundary conditions, describe the emergence of a classical, contracting universe out of nothing. The ekpyrotic attractor is essential in guaranteeing an evolution towards a real, Lorentzian history of the universe. In the context of the no-boundary proposal, the relative probability for such ekpyrotic histories compared to inflationary ones is very high -- in fact, assuming a bounce can be incorporated, these new instantons currently describe the mos…
We consider the vacuum decay of the flat Minkowski space to an anti-de Sitter space. We find a one-parameter family of potentials that allow exact, analytical instanton solutions describing tunneling without barriers in the presence of gravity. In the absence of gravity such instantons were found and discussed by Lee and Weinberg more than a quarter of a century ago. The bounce action is also analytically computed. We discuss possible implications of these new instantons to cosmology in the context of the string theory landscape.
We find constrained instantons in Einstein gravity with and without a cosmological constant. These configurations are not saddle points of the Einstein-Hilbert action, yet they contribute to non-perturbative processes in quantum gravity. In some cases we expect that they give the dominant contribution from spacetimes with certain fixed topologies. With negative cosmological constant, these metrics describe wormholes connecting two asymptotic regions. We find many examples of such wormhole metrics and for certain symmetric configurations establish their perturbative stability. We expect that th…
Unlike flat space quantum field theories that focus on scattering amplitudes, the main observables in quantum cosmology are correlation functions. The systematic way of calculating correlators is called in-in formalism, which requires only a single asymptotic region, i.e. past infinity. The rules in perturbation theory and the path integral measure are very different for in-in and in-out formalisms, and thus the results which are standard in one approach may not necessarily hold in the other one. We show that stationary phase approximation works completely different for a scalar in-in path int…
Metastable states decay at zero temperature through quantum tunneling at an exponentially small rate, which depends on the Coleman-de Luccia instanton, also known as bounce. In some theories, the bounce may not exist or its on-shell action may be ill-defined or infinite, thus hindering the vacuum decay process. In this paper, we test this possibility in modified theories of gravity interacting with a real scalar field. We consider an Einstein-Hilbert term with a non-minimally coupled scalar field and a quadratic Ricci scalar contribution. To tackle the problem we use a new analytic method, wit…
We study a class of generalized self-duality relations in gauge theories on the complex projective space with the Fubini-Study metric. Our theories consist of only gauge fields with gauge group U(n). The pseudo-energies which we consider contain higher orders of field strength and are labeled by an integer p smaller than or equal to [n/2]. For making the Bogomol'nyi completion we need non-single trace terms in the pseudo-energies, unlike the models defined on spheres, which were studied previously. We construct an explicit solution of codimension 2n to generalized self-duality equations as Bog…
An instanton $(E, D)$ on a (pseudo-)hyperkähler manifold $M$ is a vector bundle $E$ associated to a principal $G$-bundle with a connection $D$ whose curvature is pointwise invariant under the quaternionic structures of $T_x M, \ x\in M$, and thus satisfies the Yang-Mills equations. Revisiting a construction of solutions, we prove a local bijection between gauge equivalence classes of instantons on $M$ and equivalence classes of certain holomorphic functions taking values in the Lie algebra of $G^\mathbb{C}$ defined on an appropriate $SL_2(\mathbb{C})$-bundle over $M$. Our reformulation affords…
For the 11-dimensional supergravity over AdS_4 x S^7/Z_k, beginning with a general 4-from ansatz and the main geometry unchanged, we get a tower of massive and tachyonic pseudoscalars. Indeed, the resultant equations can be assigned to the so-called $ϕ^4$ actions of the non-minimally coupled scalar-tensor theories with a cosmological constant. We focus on a well-known tachyonic and a new massive bulk mode, which are singlet under the internal group and break all supersymmetries, associated with skew-whiffing and Wick-rotating of the background 4-from flux, respectively. The first one is the co…
We study the path-integral formalism in the imaginary-time to show its validity in a case with a metastable ground state. The well-known method based on the bounce solution leads to the imaginary part of the energy even for a state that is only metastable and has a simple oscillating behavior instead of decaying. Although this has been argued to be the failure of the Euclidean formalism, we show that proper account of the global structure of the path-space leads to a valid expression for the energy spectrum, without the imaginary part. For this purpose we use the proper valley method to find a…
In quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the role which topologically non-trivial configurations play in splitting the singlet pseudo-Goldstone meson, the $η^\prime$, from the octet is familiar. In addition, such configurations contribute to other processes which violate the axial $U(1)_A$ symmetry. While the nature of topological fluctuations in the confined phase is still unsettled, at temperatures well above that for the chiral phase transition, they can be described by a dilute gas of instantons. We show that instantons of arbitrary topological charge $Q$ generate anomalous interactions between $2…
Evidence for renormalized instantons in real-time simulations of vacuum decay
University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）；Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge（剑桥大学天文学研究所）；Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge（剑桥大学卡弗里宇宙学研究所）；DAMTP, University of Cambridge（剑桥大学应用数学与理论物理系）；The Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics, Department of Physics, Stockholm University（斯德哥尔摩大学物理学系奥斯卡·克莱因宇宙粒子物理中心）；Stockholm University（斯德哥尔摩大学）；Institute for Computational Cosmology, Department of Physics, Durham University（达勒姆大学物理学系计算宇宙学研究所）；Durham University（达勒姆大学）；Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics（珀蒂默理论物理研究所）；York University（约克大学）
In this paper, we construct Euclidean instanton and wormhole solutions in $d=4$, N=2 supergravity theories with hypermultiplets. The analytic continuation of the hypermultiplet action, involving pseudoscalar axions, is discussed using the approach originally developed by Coleman which determines the apparence of boundary terms. In particular, we investigate the conditions obtained by requiring the action to be positive-definite once the boundary terms are taken into account. The case of two hypermultiplets parameterizing the coset $G_{2,2}/SU(2)\times SU(2)$ is studied in detail. Orientifold p…
We present new SO(4)-invariant and non-supersymmetric instanton solutions for the conformally coupled m^2=-2 and massive m^2=+4 (pseudo)scalars arising from a consistent truncation of 11-dimensional supergravity over AdS_4 x S^7/Z_k when the internal space is a S^1 Hopf fibration on CP^3, and we consider backreaction. In fact, the bulk configurations associate with (anti)membranes wrapped around mixed internal (and external) directions, which in turn probe the Wick-rotated or skew-whiffed background, break all supersymmetries as well as parity invariance. From near the boundary behavior of the…
