Gravitational effects on and of vacuum decay

Abstract

It is possible for a classical field theory to have two stable * Work supported in part by the Department of Energy under contract DE-AC03-76SF00515 and by the National Science Foundation under Grant l No. PHY77-22864.

The cosmological constant

“…But crucially, this does not imply that the whole universe is converted into the new vacuum [31]. This technical result can be understood intuitively.…”

Scientific Approaches to the Philosophy of Religion

“…On this view, a small volume of 'false vacuum' may decay into the 'true vacuum' in which we live. This process, first suggested by Sidney Coleman and Frank De Luccia (Coleman and De Luccia, 1980) would identify our Big Bang with one of these quantum tunnelling 'decay' events. Thus the Big Bang would not represent an absolute beginning of space and time.…”

Anthropic Shadow: Observation Selection Effects and Human Extinction Risks

“…Coleman and De Luccia first mentioned the possibility that such a disaster might be caused by the operation of high-energy particle colliders used in physics research. (40) This possibility has since been widely discussed, (10,41−46) and has motivated objections to the operation of high-energy particle colliders, including most recently the Large Hadron Collider. (46,47) Three specific threats are relevant: (1) triggering vacuum phase transition through creation of an expanding bubble of "new" vacuum state, (2) accidental production of charged strangelets, which could transform all Earth's mass into strange matter, and (3) accidental production of a mini black hole falling into Earth's center and subsequently destroying our planet.…”