False vacuum decay in the de Sitter space-time (Q5930837)

The authors consider the false-vacuum decay problem in the de Sitter space using the path integral approach. The quantum false vacuum is taken as the conformal vacuum of scalar particles over the false vacuum. The Coleman-De Luccia and Hawking-Moss result is derived for the leading semiclassical approximation of the decay width from the first principles. An interpretation of Hawking-Moss instanton as the limit of constrained instantons is given. It is shown that the structure of the field after tunneling is not determined by the instanton itself but rather by field configurations that are close to it. Another interesting phenomenon is investigated : the tunneling transition from the true vacuum to the false one and the probability for this process is calculated. This approach of explicitly accounting for the initial states of the quantum field can be directly generalized to other semiclassical processes in curved spacetime.