TY - JOUR
T1 - Vacua on the Brink of Decay
AU - Pimentel, Guilherme L.
AU - Polyakov, Alexander M.
AU - Tarnopolsky, Grigory M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 World Scientific Publishing Company.
PY - 2018/8/1
Y1 - 2018/8/1
N2 - We consider free massive matter fields in static scalar, electric and gravitational backgrounds. Tuning these backgrounds to the brink of vacuum decay, we identify a term in their effective action that is singular. This singular term is universal, being independent of the features of the background configuration. In the case of gravitational backgrounds, it can be interpreted as a quantum mechanical analog of Choptuik scaling. If the background is tuned slightly above the instability threshold, this singular term gives the leading contribution to the vacuum decay rate. Dedicated to the memory of Ludwig Faddeev.
AB - We consider free massive matter fields in static scalar, electric and gravitational backgrounds. Tuning these backgrounds to the brink of vacuum decay, we identify a term in their effective action that is singular. This singular term is universal, being independent of the features of the background configuration. In the case of gravitational backgrounds, it can be interpreted as a quantum mechanical analog of Choptuik scaling. If the background is tuned slightly above the instability threshold, this singular term gives the leading contribution to the vacuum decay rate. Dedicated to the memory of Ludwig Faddeev.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85049937206&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85049937206&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1142/S0129055X18400135
DO - 10.1142/S0129055X18400135
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85049937206
SN - 0129-055X
VL - 30
JO - Reviews in Mathematical Physics
JF - Reviews in Mathematical Physics
IS - 7
M1 - 1840013
ER -