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The universe on a table top: engineering quantum decay of a relativistic scalar field from a metastable vacuum

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arxiv 1607.01460 v4 pith:DERBGSTS submitted 2016-07-06 cond-mat.quant-gas

Oleksandr Fialko , Bogdan Opanchuk , Andrei I. Sidorov , Peter D. Drummond , Joachim Brand This is my paper · ORCID
classification cond-mat.quant-gas
keywords vacuumdecayfalsefieldphasequantumrelativisticscalar
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abstract

The quantum decay of a relativistic scalar field from a metastable state ("false vacuum decay") is a fundamental idea in quantum field theory and cosmology. This occurs via local formation of bubbles of true vacuum with their subsequent rapid expansion. It can be considered as a relativistic analog of a first-order phase transition in condensed matter. Here we expand upon our recent proposal [EPL 110, 56001 (2015)] for an experimental test of false vacuum decay using an ultra-cold spinor Bose gas. A false vacuum for the relative phase of two spin components, serving as the unstable scalar field, is generated by means of a modulated linear coupling of the spin components. We analyze the system theoretically using the functional integral approach and show that various microscopic degrees of freedom in the system, albeit leading to dissipation in the relative phase sector, will not hamper the observation of the false vacuum decay in the laboratory. This is well supported by numerical simulations demonstrating the spontaneous formation of true vacuum bubbles on millisecond time-scales in two-component $^{7}$Li or $^{41}$K bosonic condensates in one-dimensional traps of $\sim100\,\mu \mathrm{m}$ size.

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Cited by 3 Pith papers

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  1. Quantum field nucleating and Wigner functions

    hep-th 2026-07 conditional novelty 7.5 of 10

    The one-loop over-the-barrier nucleation rate in a thermal QFT is Affleck’s formula generalized to fields, not Linde’s, and still carries quantum prefactor effects even when the bounce is classically symmetric.

  2. Dynamics of nucleation in thermal phase transitions

    hep-th 2026-07 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

    The thermal nucleation rate is the transition-state estimate multiplied by one minus the re-crossing probability, and oscillons make that correction large.

  3. Langer's nucleation rate reproduced on the lattice

    hep-ph 2025-05 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

    With a new gradient-descent definition of the metastable phase, lattice simulations reproduce Langer's nucleation rate for the first time in a conservative system.

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