Semiclassical calculation of an induced decay of false vacuum

TL;DR

This paper investigates the probability of false vacuum decay induced by particle interactions within a scalar field model, illustrating a thermal semiclassical approach to such processes.

Contribution

It introduces a method to calculate induced false vacuum decay probabilities using a thermal semiclassical framework in a scalar field model.

Findings

Decay probability depends on particle collisions in the second scalar field.

The thermal approach effectively describes induced decay processes.

Method can be applied to similar metastable quantum field systems.

Abstract

We consider a model where a scalar field develops a metastable vacuum state and weakly interacts with another scalar field. In this situation we find the probability of decay of the false vacuum stimulated by the presence and collisions of particles of the second field. The discussed calculation is an illustration of the recently suggested thermal approach to treatment of induced semiclassical processes.