2018/08/31 by Ruth Gregory, Katie M. Marshall, Florent Michel +1
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Black hole (networking) #Connection (principal bundle) #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Event (particle physics) #Event horizon #False vacuum #Geometry #Horizon #Instanton #Interpretation (philosophy) #Mathematical analysis #Mathematical physics #Mathematics #Physics #Quadratic equation #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum mechanics #Quantum tunnelling #Sign (mathematics) #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.98.085017
published as Phys. Rev. D 98, 085017 (2018) · 28 pages, 11 figures, close to the version published in PRD
openalex publication_date 2018/10/19 · arxiv created 2019/04/25 · arxiv updated 2019/04/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We study the negative modes of gravitational instantons representing vacuum decay in asymptotically flat space-time. We consider two different vacuum decay scenarios: the Coleman-de Luccia O(4)-symmetric bubble, and O(3)\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fiℝ instantons with a static black hole. In spite of the similarities between the models, we find qualitatively different behaviors. In the O(4)-symmetric case, the number of negative modes is known to be either one or infinite, depending on the sign of the kinetic term in the quadratic action. In contrast, solving the mode equation numerically for the static black hole instanton, we find only one negative mode with the kinetic term always positive outside the event horizon. The absence of additional negative modes supports the interpretation of these solutions as giving the tunneling rate for false vacuum decay seeded by microscopic black holes.