1993/04/08 by Marcelo Gleiser, M. Gleiser, G. C. Marques +2 · 3 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Computation #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #False vacuum #Fermion #Geometry #Mathematical physics #Mathematics #Nucleation #Physics #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Scalar (mathematics) #Scalar field #Statistical physics #Thermal #Thermodynamics #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.48.1571
published as Phys.Rev. D48 (1993) 1571-1584 · 31 pages, 4 Figures appended as encapsulated PostScript at the end of file (line 2136), used RevTeX Macros, DART-HEP-93/02
arxiv created 1993/04/08 · openalex publication_date 1993/08/15 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We examine the computation of the nucleation barrier used in the expression for false vacuum decay rates in finite-temperature field theory. By a detailed analysis of the determinantal prefactor, we show that the correct bounce solution used in the computation of the nucleation barrier should not include loop corrections coming from the scalar field undergoing decay. Temperature corrections to the bounce appear from loop contributions from other fields coupled to the scalar field. We compute the nucleation barrier for a model of scalar fields coupled to fermions, and compare our results to the expression commonly used in the literature. We find that, for large enough self-couplings, the inclusion of scalar loops in the expression of the nucleation barrier leads to an underestimate of the decay rate in the neighborhood of the critical temperature.