Black hole pair creation and the stability of flat space

TL;DR

This paper extends the analysis of flat space instability to Minkowski space by using saddle point approximation in a Schwarzschild wormhole background, interpreting the instability as black hole pair creation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to analyze flat space stability in Minkowski space through saddle point approximation in a wormhole background.

Findings

Identification of an instability in Minkowski space related to black hole pair creation

Extension of the Gross-Perry-Yaffe method to flat space

Interpretation of instability as black hole pair creation

Abstract

We extend the Gross-Perry-Yaffe approach of hot flat space instability to Minkowski space. This is done by a saddle point approximation of the partition function in a Schwarzschild wormhole background which is coincident with an eternal black hole. The appearance of an instability in the whole manifold is here interpreted as a black hole pair creation.