4 papers
Asymptotic limits of constrained instantons
Benjamin Elder, Kinga Gawrych, Arttu Rajantie
We revisit the topic of false vacuum decay in field theory. We focus on a toy model of a real massive scalar field with an unstable quartic potential. This model has a false vacuum…
Searching for screened scalar forces with long-baseline atom interferometers
Hannah Banks, John Carlton, Benjamin Elder +2
Screened scalars are ubiquitous in many dark-sector models. They give rise to non-trivial fifth forces whilst evading experimental constraints through density-dependent screening m…
Constrained instantons in scalar field theories
Benjamin Elder, Kinga Gawrych, Arttu Rajantie
Instantons, localised saddle points of the action, play an important role in describing non-perturbative aspects of quantum field theories, for example vacuum decay or violation of…
On the time-dependent density of quadratically coupled dark matter around ordinary matter objects
Clare Burrage, Benjamin Elder, Yeray Garcia del Castillo +1
Wave-like dark matter may feature quadratic couplings to ordinary matter. This carries profound consequences for the phenomenologies of such models. It changes the dark matter dens…