Enhanced Brane Tunneling and Instanton Wrinkles

Brown, Adam R.; Sarangi, Saswat; Shlaer, Benjamin; Weltman, Amanda

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.99.161601

Cited by 34 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…It was argued that this corresponded to instantons where the field profile is multivalued, and the graph of ðz; ðzÞÞ traces out an S curve, as illustrated in Fig. 2 of [28,29]. Geometrically, if is interpreted as the position of a brane in an extra dimension, this would correspond to the brane doubling back upon itself.…”

Section: B Application To Instantonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The authors of [28] pointed out that solutions for develop cusplike behavior once Vð Þ became large. It was argued that this corresponded to instantons where the field profile is multivalued, and the graph of ðz; ðzÞÞ traces out an S curve, as illustrated in Fig.…”

Section: B Application To Instantonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Typically these generalizations reduce to the usual DBI kinetic term when there is only a single field. Based on our experience with the doppelgänger solutions, the bestmotivated generalization is analogous to (28), based on a generalization of the Nambu-Goto action with two extra dimensions given by…”

Section: K-stringsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Distinguishingk-defects from their canonical twins

et al. 2010

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We study k-defects-topological defects in theories with more than two derivatives and second-order equations of motion-and describe some striking ways in which these defects both resemble and differ from their analogues in canonical scalar field theories. We show that, for some models, the homotopy structure of the vacuum manifold is insufficient to establish the existence of k-defects, in contrast to the canonical case. These results also constrain certain families of Dirac-Born-Infeld instanton solutions in the 4-dimensional effective theory. We then describe a class of k-defect solutions, which we dub ''doppelgängers,'' that precisely match the field profile and energy density of their canonical scalar field theory counterparts. We give a complete characterization of Lagrangians which admit doppelgänger domain walls. By numerically computing the fluctuation eigenmodes about domain wall solutions, we find different spectra for doppelgängers and canonical walls, allowing us to distinguish between k-defects and the canonical walls they mimic. We search for doppelgängers for cosmic strings by numerically constructing solutions of Dirac-Born-Infeld and canonical scalar field theories. Despite investigating several examples, we are unable to find doppelgänger cosmic strings, hence the existence of doppelgängers for defects with codimension >1 remains an open question. We study k-defects-topological defects in theories with more than two derivatives and second-order equations of motion-and describe some striking ways in which these defects both resemble and differ from their analogues in canonical scalar field theories. We show that, for some models, the homotopy structure of the vacuum manifold is insufficient to establish the existence of k-defects, in contrast to the canonical case. These results also constrain certain families of Dirac-Born-Infeld instanton solutions in the 4-dimensional effective theory. We then describe a class of k-defect solutions, which we dub ''doppelgängers,'' that precisely match the field profile and energy density of their canonical scalar field theory counterparts. We give a complete characterization of Lagrangians which admit doppelgänger domain walls. By numerically computing the fluctuation eigenmodes about domain wall solutions, we find different spectra for doppelgängers and canonical walls, allowing us to distinguish between k-defects and the canonical walls they mimic. We search for doppelgängers for cosmic strings by numerically constructing solutions of Dirac-Born-Infeld and canonical scalar field theories. Despite investigating several examples, we are unable to find doppelgänger cosmic strings, hence the existence of doppelgängers for defects with codimension >1 remains an open question. Disciplines Physical Sciences and Mathematics | Physics

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Section: B Application To Instantonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: B Application To Instantonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Distinguishingk-defects from their canonical twins

et al. 2010

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“…The Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) action, which describes the dynamics of a brane embedded in a higher dimensional spacetime, has provided an important setting within which to study inflation [1,2], late-time cosmic acceleration [3], tunneling [4], and exotic topological defects [5][6][7][8][9]. The DBI action has been extensively studied in recent years, and its rather special properties are now well-understood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stability and superluminality of spherical DBI Galileon solutions

2011

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The DBI galileons are a generalization of the galileon terms, which extend the internal galilean symmetry to an internal relativistic symmetry, and can also be thought of as generalizations of DBI which yield second order field equations. We show that, when considered as local modifications to gravity, such as in the Solar system, there exists a region of parameter space in which spherically symmetric static solutions exist and are stable. However, these solutions always exhibit superluminality, casting doubt on the existence of a standard Lorentz invariant UV completion.

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“…These theories appear in many cases in modern cosmological models, and, as we shall see, the decay rate can be highly non-intuitive (see also Ref. [17]). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

WKB approximation and tunneling in theories with noncanonical kinetic terms

González¹,

Masoumi²,

Solomon³

et al. 2017

Phys. Rev. D

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Tunneling is a fascinating aspect of quantum mechanics that renders the local minima of a potential meta-stable, with important consequences for particle physics, for the early hot stage of the universe, and more speculatively, for the behavior of the putative multiverse. While this phenomenon has been studied extensively for systems which have canonical kinetic terms, many theories of fundamental physics contain fields with non-canonical kinetic structures. It is therefore desirable to have a detailed framework for calculating tunneling rates and initial states after tunneling for these theories. In this work we present such a rigorous formulation and illustrate its use by applying it to a number of examples.

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Enhanced Brane Tunneling and Instanton Wrinkles

Abstract: Stringy effects on vacuum transitions are shown to include surprisingly large decay rates through very high potential barriers. This simple yet counterintuitive result will drastically modify the measure on the landscape of string vacua.

Cited by 34 publications

References 10 publications

Distinguishingk-defects from their canonical twins

Distinguishingk-defects from their canonical twins

Stability and superluminality of spherical DBI Galileon solutions

WKB approximation and tunneling in theories with noncanonical kinetic terms

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