2022/04/06 by José Eliel Camargo-Molina, Arttu Rajantie, Camargo-Molina, José Eliel +1
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Stochastic processes and financial applications
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2204.02875
openalex publication_date 2022/04/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The stochastic spectral expansion method offers a simple framework for calculations in de Sitter spacetimes. We show how to extend its reach to metastable vacuum states, both in the case when the potential is bounded from below, and when it is unbounded from below and therefore no stable vacuum state exists. In both cases, the decay rate of the metastable vacuum is given by the lowest non-zero eigenvalue associated to the Fokker-Planck equation. We show how the corresponding eigenfunction determines the field probability distribution which can be used to compute correlation functions and other observables in the metastable vacuum state.