Nonperturbative double copy: worldline instantons, color thermality, and backreaction

TL;DR

This paper develops a non-perturbative worldline instanton approach to analyze vacuum decay in non-abelian gauge theories within a gravitational background, revealing a topological spectrum and the double copy's role in capturing backreaction effects.

Contribution

It introduces a first-principles non-perturbative method for vacuum decay in non-abelian gauge theories using worldline instantons and demonstrates the double copy's ability to incorporate backreaction effects.

Findings

Recovered gauge theory color-thermal spectrum as a topological winding mode

Mapped vacuum response from gauge theory to gravity via double copy

Identified universal quadratic correction from color charge conservation

Abstract

We present a first-principles, non-perturbative worldline instanton analysis of vacuum decay in the non-abelian Yang-Mills root of a Schwarzschild background. We recover the gauge theory color-thermal spectrum as a topological winding mode. The double copy maps vacuum response from the gauge theory directly to the gravity theory. Furthermore, the decay exponent acquires a universal quadratic correction from color charge conservation, showing that the double copy correctly captures the non-linear backreaction as required for unitarity.