Non-perturbative methods for false vacuum decay

Abstract

We propose a simple non-perturbative formalism for false vacuum decay using functional methods. We introduce the quasi-stationary effective action, a bounce action that non-perturbatively incorporates radiative corrections and is robust to strong couplings. The quasi-stationary effective action obeys an exact flow equation in a modified functional renormalization group with a motivated regulator functional. We demonstrate the use of this formalism in a simple toy model and compare our result with that obtained in perturbation theory.

26 pages, 2 figures; v2: added discussion, appendices, and references, corrected typos, switched to JHEP format

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