Instability of de Sitter space under thermal radiation in different vacua

Abstract

We study the instability of de Sitter space-time (dS) under thermal radiation in different vacua. We argue that the mode function solution of a scalar field in four-dimensional dS can be separated into the incoming and outgoing modes. Different vacua for dS are realized by different combinations of positive frequency modes assigned to each solution. For a minimally coupled massless scalar field, we explicitly compute the behavior of the mode function and the corresponding energy-momentum tensor in the Unruh vacuum near the horizon, and find that the horizon area increases (decreases) in time when the incoming (outgoing) mode contributes to thermal flux.

(v1) 31 pages, 5 figures; (v2) 32 pages, misleading discussions in Section 2.2 corrected and expanded; (v3) 33 pages, discussions refined, to appear in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

References in corpus (10)

• The Effective Field Theory of Inflation
• The Unruh effect and its applications
• Eternal inflation and its implications
• De Sitter Space and Eternity
• A Measure of de Sitter Entropy and Eternal Inflation
• The trans-Planckian censorship conjecture from the swampland distance conjecture
• Path Integral for Inflationary Perturbations
• Quantum non-linear evolution of inflationary tensor perturbations
• Heating up an environment around black holes and inside de Sitter space
• de Sitter Space is Unstable in Quantum Gravity

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Macroscopic quantum tunneling: from quantum vortices to black holes and Universe
• Thermodynamics and decay of de Sitter vacuum
• Information paradox and island in quasi-de Sitter space
• (In)stability of de Sitter vacuum in light of distance conjecture and emergence proposal
• Von Neumann algebra description of inflationary cosmology
• Black hole production, eternal inflation, and information in quasi-de Sitter space