Hawking-Moss bounces and vacuum decay rates

Dec, 2006
4 pages
Published in:
  • Phys.Rev.Lett. 98 (2007) 251303
e-Print:
Report number:
  • CU-TP-1171,
  • KIAS-P06062

Citations per year

200720112015201920230123456
Abstract:
The conventional interpretation of the Hawking-Moss (HM) solution implies a transition rate between vacua that depends only on the values of the potential in the initial vacuum and at the top of a potential barrier, leading to the implausible conclusion that transitions to distant vacua can be as likely as those to a nearby one. I analyze this issue using a nongravitational example with analogous properties. I show that such HM bounce do not give reliable rate calculations, but are instead related to the probability of finding a quasistable configuration at a local potential maximum.
  • 11.10.-z
  • 04.62.+v
  • 98.80.Cq
  • field theory: scalar
  • gravitation
  • bubble: nucleation
  • vacuum state: transition
  • field equations: solution