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The Thin-Wall Approximation in Vacuum Decay: a Lemma

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arxiv 1711.07712 v2 pith:7EMGIJT7 submitted 2017-11-21 hep-th

classification hep-th
keywords thin-wallapproximationdecayapproximationsboundlemmaratesimple
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The 'thin-wall approximation' gives a simple estimate of the decay rate of an unstable quantum field. Unfortunately, the approximation is uncontrolled. In this paper I show that there are actually two different thin-wall approximations and that they bracket the true decay rate: I prove that one is an upper bound and the other a lower bound. In the thin-wall limit, the two approximations converge. In the presence of gravity, a generalization of this lemma provides a simple sufficient condition for non-perturbative vacuum instability.

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Cited by 2 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. An infrared bound on the ultraviolet bounce

    hep-th 2025-06 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    A proof that pseudo-bounce actions decrease monotonically to the true bounce action, with and without gravity, plus an estimate that the Standard Model's AdS3 vacuum decays with exponent ~M_pl^3/(m_nu^2 Lambda).

  2. The Quantum Mechanics of Rare Events: From Quantum Walks to Stochastic Inflation

    hep-th 2026-08 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    Rare fluctuations in quantum walks are ruled by a measurement-induced relative entropy, and applying this to stochastic inflation yields a steady state that violates detailed balance.

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