Detecting a long lived false vacuum with quantum quenches

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2308.08340v3
• Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2023 21:30:16 GMT
• Title: Detecting a long lived false vacuum with quantum quenches
• Authors: Gianluca Lagnese, Federica Maria Surace, Sid Morampudi, Frank Wilczek
• Abstract summary: We show that there are physical phenomena on much shorter time scales that can diagnose the difference. Small transition bubbles are more common than large ones, and we see characteristic differences in the size dependence of bubble lifetimes.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: Distinguishing whether a system supports alternate low-energy (locally stable) states -- stable (true vacuum) versus metastable (false vacuum) -- by direct observation can be difficult when the lifetime of the state is very long but otherwise unknown. Here we demonstrate, in a tractable model system, that there are physical phenomena on much shorter time scales that can diagnose the difference. Specifically, we study the spectral density following a quench in the tilted quantum Ising model, and show that the evolution of the spectral density is a powerful diagnostic. Small transition bubbles are more common than large ones, and we see characteristic differences in the size dependence of bubble lifetimes even well below the critical size for false vacuum decay. We expect this sort of behavior to be generic in systems of this kind. We show such signatures persist in a continuum field theory. This also opens the possibility of similar signatures of the potential metastable false vacuum of our universe well before the beginning of a decay process to the true vacuum.

Related papers

• Quantum jumps in amplitude bistability: tracking a coherent and invertible state localization [0.0]
  We investigate quantum jumps occurring between macroscopic metastable states of light in the open driven Jaynes-Cummings model. We find that, in the limit of zero spontaneous emission considered in [H. J. Carmichael, Phys. Rev. X 5, 031028], the jumps from a high-photon state to the vacuum state entail two stages.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-09-17T15:08:48Z)
• Real-time dynamics of false vacuum decay [49.1574468325115]
  We investigate false vacuum decay of a relativistic scalar field in the metastable minimum of an asymmetric double-well potential. We employ the non-perturbative framework of the two-particle irreducible (2PI) quantum effective action at next-to-leading order in a large-N expansion.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-10-06T12:44:48Z)
• Observation of false vacuum decay via bubble formation in ferromagnetic superfluids [47.187609203210705]
  In quantum field theory, the decay of an extended metastable state into the real ground state is known as false vacuum decay'' Here, we observe bubble nucleation in isolated and highly controllable superfluid atomic systems.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-05-09T07:41:08Z)
• A universe born in a metastable false vacuum state needs not die [0.0]
  We try to find conditions, the fulfillment of which allows a universe born in a metastable false vacuum state to survive and not to collapse. The instability of the electroweak vacuum does not have to result in the tragic fate of our Universe leading to its death.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2022-07-22T09:23:20Z)
• Self-oscillating pump in a topological dissipative atom-cavity system [55.41644538483948]
  We report on an emergent mechanism for pumping in a quantum gas coupled to an optical resonator. Due to dissipation, the cavity field evolves between its two quadratures, each corresponding to a different centrosymmetric crystal configuration. This self-oscillation results in a time-periodic potential analogous to that describing the transport of electrons in topological tight-binding models.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-12-21T19:57:30Z)
• Coherent Qubit Measurement in Cavity-Transmon Quantum Systems [0.0]
  A measurement of the time between quantum jumps implies the capability to measure the next jump. The theory developed in 1987 for atomic fluorescence is here extended to transitions in transmon qubits. We find that next photon statistics is highly non exponential and when implemented will enable faster readout.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-12-17T01:16:48Z)
• False vacuum decay in quantum spin chains [0.0]
  We study the non-equilibrium dynamics of the false vacuum in a quantum Ising chain and in an XXZ ladder. We find that the numerical results agree with the theoretical prediction that the decay rate is exponentially small in the inverse of the longitudinal field.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-07-21T16:01:39Z)
• Visualizing spinon Fermi surfaces with time-dependent spectroscopy [62.997667081978825]
  We propose applying time-dependent photo-emission spectroscopy, an established tool in solid state systems, in cold atom quantum simulators. We show in exact diagonalization simulations of the one-dimensional $t-J$ model that the spinons start to populate previously unoccupied states in an effective band structure. The dependence of the spectral function on the time after the pump pulse reveals collective interactions among spinons.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-05-27T18:00:02Z)
• Instantons with Quantum Core [79.45476975925384]
  We consider new instantons that appear as a result of accounting for quantum fluctuations. These fluctuations naturally regularize the O(4) singular solutions abandoned in Coleman's theory. Unlike the Coleman instantons, the instantons with quantum cores always exist in the cases where the vacuum must be unstable.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-05-05T11:51:16Z)
• Zitterbewegung and Klein-tunneling phenomena for transient quantum waves [77.34726150561087]
  We show that the Zitterbewegung effect manifests itself as a series of quantum beats of the particle density in the long-time limit. We also find a time-domain where the particle density of the point source is governed by the propagation of a main wavefront. The relative positions of these wavefronts are used to investigate the time-delay of quantum waves in the Klein-tunneling regime.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-03-09T21:27:02Z)
• Non-exponential decay in Floquet-Bloch bands [0.0]
  Exponential decay laws describe systems ranging from unstable nuclei to fluorescent molecules. We propose the use of Bose condensates in Floquet-Bloch bands as a probe of long-time non-exponential decay in single isolated emitters.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-02-08T00:12:22Z)

This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.

This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.