Negative modes of Coleman–De Luccia and black hole bubbles

Gregory, Ruth; Marshall, Katie M.; Florent, Michel; Moss, Ian G.

Abstract

We study the negative modes of gravitational instantons representing vacuum decay in asymptotically flat space-time. We consider two different vacuum decay scenarios: the Coleman-de Luccia O(4)- symmetric bubble, and Oð3Þ × R instantons with a static black hole. In spite of the similarities between the models, we find qualitatively different behaviors. In the O(4)-symmetric case, the number of negative modes is known to be either one or infinite, depending on the sign of the kinetic term in the quadratic action. In contrast, solving the mode equation numerically for the static black hole instanton, we find only one negative mode with the kinetic term always positive outside the event horizon. The absence of additional negative modes supports the interpretation of these solutions as giving the tunneling rate for false vacuum decay seeded by microscopic black holes.

Citation

Gregory, R., Marshall, K. M., Florent, M., & Moss, I. G. (2018). Negative modes of Coleman–De Luccia and black hole bubbles. Physical Review D, 98(8), Article 085017. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.98.085017

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 3, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Oct 19, 2018
• Publication Date: Oct 19, 2018
• Deposit Date: Oct 23, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 23, 2018
• Journal: Physical Review D
• Print ISSN: 2470-0010
• Electronic ISSN: 2470-0029
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 98
• Issue: 8
• Article Number: 085017
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.98.085017
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1315190