One loop aspects of Coleman de Luccia instantons at small backreaction

2025/09/23 by Victor Ivo, Ivo, Victor · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Euclidean geometry #FOS: Physical sciences #False vacuum #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Gravitation #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Instanton #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Path (computing) #Path integral formulation #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum field theory #Symmetry (geometry)

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2509.18651

published in arXiv (Cornell University) (Cornell University)

openalex publication_date 2025/09/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We discuss the Euclidean path integral around Coleman de Luccia instantons. We compute their contribution at the one-loop level, at leading order in the small backreaction limit. At this level of approximation, their contribution factorizes into a pure gravity and a pure matter contribution. In deriving this result, we also clarify what happens to some zero mode contributions to the path integral, once the symmetry responsible for them is broken. With these results established, we propose a formula for the decay rate of the false vacuum in terms of gravitational path integrals, and we show that our definition matches the usual quantum field theory result as G_N→0. Lastly, we propose a prescription to study how the phase of the gravity+matter path integral changes as we change the parameters of the theory.

Citations

• Constraints are not enough
• Physical instabilities and the phase of the Euclidean path integral
• The phase of the gravitational path integral
• Quantum corrections to the path integral of near extremal de Sitter black holes
• Real observers solving imaginary problems
• A Background Independent Algebra in Quantum Gravity
• An algebra of observables for de Sitter space
• The statistical mechanics of near-BPS black holes
• Replica Wormholes and the Entropy of Hawking Radiation
• The Large-N Limit of Superconformal Field Theories and Supergravity
• Fate of the false vacuum: Semiclassical theory

Cited by

• On the phase of the de Sitter density of states

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