Heidelberg 2007 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 308: QFT+Kosmologie I

T 308.5: Talk

Wednesday, March 7, 2007, 17:57–18:15, KIP SR 2.403

False vacuum decay: the role of quantum backreaction — •Nina Kevlishvili and Jürgen Baacke — Fachbereich Physik, Universität Dortmund, 44221 Dortmund

False vacuum decay is a mechanism that is used in many cosmological models. It may occur either globally in a compact universe or locally in an infinite one. The process may proceed by tunneling or by thermal transitions. In all cases quantum fluctuations are excited and their backreaction may affect the transition. Here we consider the quantum backreaction on tunneling in a compact universe in a real-time approach and on local transitions in infinite space via bounces in the imaginary time formalism. In both cases we incorporate the fluctuations in self-consistent way. We present the basic equations of motion and discuss various numerical results.