Video URL
https://pirsa.org/19020041A New Real-Time Picture of Vacuum Decay
APA
Braden, J. (2019). A New Real-Time Picture of Vacuum Decay. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. https://pirsa.org/19020041
MLA
Braden, Jonathan. A New Real-Time Picture of Vacuum Decay. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Feb. 05, 2019, https://pirsa.org/19020041
BibTex
@misc{ scivideos_PIRSA:19020041, doi = {10.48660/19020041}, url = {https://pirsa.org/19020041}, author = {Braden, Jonathan}, keywords = {Cosmology}, language = {en}, title = {A New Real-Time Picture of Vacuum Decay}, publisher = {Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics}, year = {2019}, month = {feb}, note = {PIRSA:19020041 see, \url{https://scivideos.org/index.php/pirsa/19020041}} }
Jonathan Braden Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA)
Abstract
Quantum decay of false vacuum states via the nucleation of bubbles may
have played an important role in the early history of our Universe. For
example, in multiverse models that utilize false vacuum eternal
inflation, the Big Bang of our observable Universe corresponds to one of
these bubble nucleation events. Further, our observable Universe may
have undergone a series of symmetry-breaking first-order phase
transitions as it cooled, which may have produced a remnant background
of gravitational waves.
I will present results from a new real-time picture of false vacuum
decay which, in contrast to existing semiclassical techniques, does not
rely on classically forbidden tunneling paths. Lattice simulations are
used to evolve initial realizations of fluctuations around the false
vacuum forward in time via the classical equations of motion. In these
simulations, we observe the false vacuum decay via the formation and
subsequent expansion and coalescence of true vacuum bubbles. By
sampling initial field realizations, we build up ensembles of these
decay histories and empirically determine the bubble nucleation rate.
The rates agree well with standard Euclidean techniques, which cannot
provide a time-dependent description of the decay. Some novel
applications of our new approach include investigation of bubble-bubble
correlation functions, decay of time-evolving metastable states, decay
of non-vacuum initial states, and the regime of rapid decays.