Green's function method for handling radiative effects on false vacuum decay

TL;DR

This paper presents a Green's function approach to incorporate radiative effects in false vacuum decay, simplifying calculations via the planar wall approximation and applying it to a scalar field theory with analytical results.

Contribution

Introduces a Green's function method for radiative effects on false vacuum decay, with analytical calculations in a scalar field model extended by heavier scalars.

Findings

Analytical calculation of the functional determinant of fluctuations.

First correction to the soliton configuration obtained.

Simplified treatment of bubble walls in decay calculations.

Abstract

We introduce a Green's function method for handling radiative effects on false vacuum decay. In addition to the usual thin-wall approximation, we achieve further simplification by treating the bubble wall in the planar limit. As an application, we take the $\lambda\phi^4$ theory, extended with $N$ additional heavier scalars, wherein we calculate analytically both the functional determinant of the quadratic fluctuations about the classical soliton configuration and the first correction to the soliton configuration itself.