Pathology in the WKB wave function for tunneling assisted by gravity

Abstract

There are several exotic tunneling processes that can be realized only by incorporating the effect of gravity. Here, we point out that we encounter difficulties in constructing the WKB wave function, once we try to describe quantum fluctuations around the semi-classical tunneling path. We present examples of pathology in the true vacuum decay/upward tunneling, the false vacuum decay catalyzed by a black hole and the tunneling with black hole/wormhole production.