Thermal derivation of the Coleman-De Luccia tunneling prescription

TL;DR

This paper presents a thermal field theory approach to derive the Coleman-De Luccia tunneling rate in de Sitter space, offering a new interpretation of bounce solutions and system evolution post-tunneling.

Contribution

It introduces a thermal derivation of the tunneling rate that modifies the understanding of bounce solutions and system evolution, resolving previous interpretational issues.

Findings

Reproduces the Coleman-De Luccia formalism through thermal field theory.

Provides a new interpretation of bounce solutions as sequences of configurations.

Discusses extension to anti-de Sitter vacua.

Abstract

We derive the rate for transitions between de Sitter vacua by treating the field theory on the static patch as a thermal system. This reproduces the Coleman-De Luccia formalism for calculating the rate, but leads to a modified interpretation of the bounce solution and a different prediction for the evolution of the system after tunneling. The bounce is seen to correspond to a sequence of configurations interpolating between initial and final configurations on either side of the tunneling barrier, all of which are restricted to the static patch. The final configuration, which gives the initial data on the static patch for evolution after tunneling, is obtained from one half of a slice through the center of the bounce, while the other half gives the configuration before tunneling. The formalism makes no statement about the fields beyond the horizon. This approach resolves several puzzling aspects and interpretational issues concerning the Coleman-De Luccia and Hawking-Moss bounces. We work in the limit where the back reaction of matter on metric can be ignored, but argue that the qualitative aspects remain in the more general case. The extension to tunneling between anti-de Sitter vacua is discussed.