PIRSA:10080000

Topological defects and vacuum decay

Yajnik, U. (2010). Topological defects and vacuum decay. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/10080000

Yajnik, Urjit. Topological defects and vacuum decay. Perimeter Institute, Aug. 20, 2010, https://pirsa.org/10080000 

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:10080000,
            doi = {10.48660/10080000},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/10080000},
            author = {Yajnik, Urjit},
            keywords = {Particle Physics},
            language = {en},
            title = {Topological defects and vacuum decay},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2010},
            month = {aug},
            note = {PIRSA:10080000 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }

Urjit Yajnik Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay

DOI 10.48660/10080000
Collection
Talk Type Scientific Series
Subject

Abstract

False vacua in QFT are liable to undergo spontaneous decay. Slowness of quantum tunneling can however allow a long lifetime to the false vacuum state. In supersymmetric theories this is a crucial criterion for obtaining a long lived universe with spontaneously broken supersymmetry. We have explored false vacua which admit topological defects, including in a supersymmetric model with O'Rafeartaigh type supersymmetry breaking. We show that the presence of topological defects significantly alters the stability of the false vacuum. For some values of parameters, it also results in the putative false vacuum being rendered unstable. Finally I report a formula derived for instanton assisted tunneling applicable to metastable vacua with monopoles.