Semiclassical calculation of decay rates

TL;DR

This paper discusses a semiclassical approach to calculating decay rates of metastable states in quantum field theory, emphasizing the role of classical solutions and fluctuations for non-perturbative insights.

Contribution

It introduces a formalism for computing the one-loop effective action semiclassically to accurately determine decay rates of non-static metastable states.

Findings

Provides a method to compute decay rates using semiclassical techniques.

Highlights the importance of classical solutions and fluctuations in quantum decay processes.

Aims for more precise decay rate calculations in quantum field theories.

Abstract

Several relevant aspects of quantum-field processes can be well described by semiclassical methods. In particular, the knowledge of non-trivial classical solutions of the field equations, and the thermal and quantum fluctuations around them, provide non-perturbative information about the theory. In this work, we discuss the calculation of the one-loop effective action from the semiclasssical viewpoint. We intend to use this formalism to obtain an accurate expression for the decay rate of non-static metastable states.