Breaking of a metastable string at finite temperature

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the phase transition of a metastable string at finite temperature, calculating the thermal catalysis factor for decay via quantum tunneling and string breakup in various dimensions.

Contribution

It provides a general formula for the thermal catalysis factor for string decay and breakup, extending understanding of metastable string dynamics at finite temperature.

Findings

Derived a formula for the thermal catalysis factor in arbitrary dimensions.

Calculated decay rates for a string transitioning to a lower tension or breaking into two pieces.

Extended the analysis to the special case of zero tension, describing string breakup.

Abstract

We consider the phase transition of a string with tension $\eps_1$ to a string with a smaller tension $\eps_2$ at finite temperature. For sufficiently small temperatures the transition proceeds through thermally catalyzed quantum tunneling, and we calculate in arbitrary number of dimensions the thermal catalysis factor. At $\eps_2=0$ the found formula for the decay rate also describes a break up of a metastable string into two pieces.