Abstract
We study the decay rate of a false vacuum in gauge theory at the one-loop level. We pay particular attention to the case where the bounce consists of an arbitrary number of scalar fields. With a multi-field bounce, which has a curved trajectory in the field space, the mixing among the gauge fields and the scalar fields evolves along the path of the bounce in the field space and the one-loop calculation of the vacuum decay rate becomes complicated. We consider the one-loop contribution to the decay rate with an arbitrary choice of the gauge parameter, and obtain a gauge invariant expression of the vacuum decay rate. We also give proper treatments of gauge zero modes and renormalization.
Highlights
The decay of a false vacuum has attracted theoretical and phenomenological interests in particle physics and cosmology
We study the decay rate of a false vacuum in gauge theory at the one-loop level
As we have mentioned in the previous section, if a gauge symmetry, which is broken by the bounce, is restored at the false vacuum, there show up zero modes in = 0 fluctuation operators
Summary
The decay of a false vacuum has attracted theoretical and phenomenological interests in particle physics and cosmology. An explicit check of the gauge invariance at the one-loop level is quite formidable and the first calculation appeared only recently in [33, 34] In these papers, a manifestly gauge-invariant expression of the decay rate has been obtained for the case where the bounce consists of a single field (single-field bounce). A manifestly gauge-invariant expression of the decay rate has been obtained for the case where the bounce consists of a single field (single-field bounce) They address another issue that arises when a gauge symmetry preserved in the false vacuum is broken by the bounce configuration.
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