Impact of Gravity on Vacuum Stability

TL;DR

This paper challenges previous assumptions by showing that strong gravitational fields at the Planck scale do not necessarily prevent true vacuum bubble formation, impacting theories on vacuum stability and new physics.

Contribution

It demonstrates that beyond the thin wall approximation, strong gravity does not always suppress vacuum decay, revising earlier conclusions about vacuum stability.

Findings

Strong gravity does not always stabilize the false vacuum.

Vacuum decay can occur under Planckian gravitational conditions.

Implications for electroweak vacuum stability and beyond Standard Model physics.

Abstract

In a pioneering paper on the role of gravity on false vacuum decay, Coleman and De Luccia showed that a strong gravitational field can stabilize the false vacuum, suppressing the formation of true vacuum bubbles. This result is obtained for the case when the energy density difference between the two vacua is small, the so called thin wall regime, but is considered of more general validity. Here we show that when this condition does not hold, however, {\it a strong gravitational field (Planckian physics) does not necessarily induce a total suppression of true vacuum bubble nucleation}. Contrary to common expectations then, gravitational physics at the Planck scale {\it does not stabilize the false vacuum}. These results are of crucial importance for the stability analysis of the electroweak vacuum and for searches of new physics beyond the Standard Model.