Finite Temperature Resonant Tunneling in False Vacuum Decay and the Lee-Yang Theorem

TL;DR

This paper investigates finite temperature effects on false vacuum decay via resonant tunneling in a scalar field model, linking phase transition theory, particle production, and the Lee-Yang theorem to understand instanton dynamics.

Contribution

It extends previous zero-temperature results to finite temperatures, demonstrating how phase transition properties and fluctuations influence resonant tunneling and instanton behavior.

Findings

Tunneling is a first order phase transition.

Resonant tunneling leads to particle production.

Dilute instanton gas persists at finite temperatures until critical temperature.

Abstract

We consider the cosmological model of a self-interacting $\phi^4 - \phi^2$ quantum scalar field and extend our previous results, [3], on resonant tunneling and consequent particle production, to the case of finite temperature. Using the mathematical equivalence between, the Euclidean path integral of a $\phi^4 - \phi^2$ quantum field theory (in the saddle point approximation), on one hand, and the partition function of a 4-dimensional ferromagnet (in the Ising model approximation), on the other, we derive the following results. Tunneling is a first order phase transition. The creation of metastable bound states of instanton-antinstanton pairs under the barrier ,(i.e. resonant tunneling), is the seed that gives rise to particle production. Through the application of the Lee-Yang theorem for phase transitions, (as well as demonstrating the underlying connection this has with the poles of the S-matrix element in the quantum scattering theory), we show that the fluctuations around the dominant escape paths of instantons (i.e. fluctuations of the bubble wall) with momenta comparable to the scale curvature of the bubble, drive the mechanism for resonant tunneling in false vacuum decay. We also identify the temperature dependence of the parameters in the potential term, (or equivalently, of the instanton bubbles), for a wide range of temperatures Finally, we show that the picture of a dilute instanton gas,remains valid even at finite temperatures, as this gas becomes more and more dilute with the increase of the temperature. This suppression continues until we reach the critical temperature, at which point there is only one instanton left, with an infinitely thick wall.