Extended Metastable Dark Energy

Abstract

The metastable dark energy scenario is revisited by assuming that the current false vacuum energy density is the remnant from a primeval inflationary stage. The zero temperature scalar field potential is here described by an even power series up to order six which depends on 3 free parameters: the mass of the scalar field ($m$), the dimensionless ($\lambda$) specifying the standard self-interaction term, and a free cutoff mass scale ($M$) quantifying all possible deviations from the degenerate false vacuum state. The current $\Lambda$CDM model is a consequence of the very long decay time of the false vacuum which although finite is much greater than the current age of the Universe. This result remains valid for arbitrary combinations of the $m/M$ ratio which can analytically be determined in the thin-wall approximation and numerically calculated outside this limit. Unlike many claims in the literature the vacuum dominance may be temporary. The finiteness of the decay time suggests that the ultimate stage of the observed Universe in such a scenario will not be driven by a de Sitter type cosmology.

arXiv comment9 pages, 3 figures and 4 tables

References in corpus (21)

• The Cosmological Constant and Dark Energy
• Quintessence, Cosmic Coincidence, and the Cosmological Constant
• Small-Scale Challenges to the $\Lambda$CDM Paradigm
• Encyclopaedia Inflationaris
• Flux Compactification
• Reheating in Inflationary Cosmology: Theory and Applications
• Effective Field Theory for Inflation
• CosmoTransitions: Computing Cosmological Phase Transition Temperatures and Bubble Profiles with Multiple Fields
• The Baryon asymmetry in the Standard Model with a low cut-off
• Alternative Dark Energy Models: An Overview
• CDM Accelerating Cosmology as an Alternative to LCDM model
• Scalar-field-dominated cosmology with a transient accelerating phase
• Matter creation and cosmic acceleration
• Gravitationally Induced Particle Production: Thermodynamics and Kinetic Theory
• Cosmography beyond standard candles and rulers
• Could the cosmic acceleration be transient? A cosmographic evaluation
• String Gas Cosmology after Planck
• Metastable dark energy
• Fate of the true-vacuum bubbles
• A Step Beyond the Bounce: Bubble Dynamics in Quantum Phase Transitions
• Bubble formation in ${\varphi }^6$ potential

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Cosmological "constant" in a universe born in the metastable false vacuum state