Resonant Nucleation

Abstract

We investigate the role played by fast quenching on the decay of metastable (or false vacuum) states. Instead of the exponentially-slow decay rate per unit volume, ${\Gamma }_{\mathrm{HN}}\sim \exp [-E_b/k_{B}T]$ ($E_b$ is the free energy of the critical bubble), predicted by Homogeneous Nucleation theory, we show that under fast enough quenching the decay rate is a power law ${\Gamma }_{\mathrm{RN}}\sim [E_b/k_{B}T{]}^{-B}$, where $B$ is weakly sensitive to the temperature. For a range of parameters, large-amplitude oscillations about the metastable state trigger the resonant emergence of coherent subcritical configurations. Decay mechanisms for different $E_b$ are proposed and illustrated in a (2+1)-dimensional scalar field model.

5 pages, 5 figures, uses revtex4. Final version accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters. Text and figures have been edited

References in corpus (1)

• d-dimensional Oscillating Scalar Field Lumps and the Dimensionality of Space

Cited by in corpus (25)

• Information Content of Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking
• Radiation and Relaxation of Oscillons
• An Electroweak Oscillon
• Emergence of Oscillons in an Expanding Background
• Analytical Characterization of Oscillon Energy and Lifetime
• K-Oscillons: Oscillons with Non-Canonical Kinetic Terms
• Unnatural Oscillon Lifetimes in an Expanding Background
• A Phase Transition in U(1) Configuration Space: Oscillons as Remnants of Vortex-Antivortex Annihilation
• Oscillons in Scalar Field Theories: Applications in Higher Dimensions and Inflation
• Long-Lived Time-Dependent Remnants During Cosmological Symmetry Breaking: From Inflation to the Electroweak Scale
• Numerical Simulation of an Electroweak Oscillon
• Metastability, nucleation, and noise-enhanced stabilization out of equilibrium
• Scale-Dependent Growth from a Transition in Dark Energy Dynamics
• Bubbling the False Vacuum Away
• Instability of coherent states of a real scalar field
• Real-time dynamics of false vacuum decay
• Asymmetric Spatiotemporal Evolution of Prebiotic Homochirality
• Cosmic bubble and domain wall instabilities II: Fracturing of colliding walls
• Non-topological solitons and quasi-solitons
• Bubble velocities and oscillon precursors in first-order phase transitions
• Coupled scalar fields Oscillons and Breathers in some Lorentz Violating Scenarios
• A review on radiation of oscillons and oscillatons
• Wave-Packet Scattering off the Kink-Solution
• Transient Nucleation near the Mean-Field Spinodal
• Supersymmetry and Fermionic Modes in an Oscillon Background