Lifetime of metastable vacuum states

Abstract

We analyze the decay of a false vacuum into a true vacuum. We do this by obtaining the time-dependent field configurations in Minkowski space, and then constructing an effective one-parameter Hamiltonian to describe the transition. In 1 + 1 dimensions, we use the semiclassical approximation to obtain the barrier-penetration factor, the coefficient, and the fundamental length, and thereby obtain the lifetime for an arbitrary point in the false vacuum. The problem of 3 + 1 dimensions is briefly discussed.