False Vacuum Decay in QCD within an Effective Lagrangian Approach

TL;DR

This paper presents a nonperturbative analytic approximation for the decay rate of false vacuum states in QCD, applicable at zero and high temperatures, with implications for early universe cosmology and collider experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel effective Lagrangian method to estimate false vacuum decay rates in QCD nonperturbatively at different temperatures.

Findings

Calculated decay rates for zero and high temperature QCD false vacua.

Implications for early universe phase transitions.

Potential observable signatures at RHIC.

Abstract

In an effective Lagrangian approach to QCD we nonperturbatively calculate an analytic approximation to the decay rate of a false vacuum per unit volume, $\Gamma/V$. We do so for both zero and high temperature theories. This result is important for the study of the early universe at around the time of the QCD phase transition. It is also important in order to determine the possibility of observing this false vacuum decay at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Previously described dramatic signatures of the decay of false vacuum bubbles would occur in our case as well.