Tunneling Potentials to Nothing

Abstract

The catastrophic decay of a spacetime with compact dimensions, via bubbles of nothing (BoNs), is probably a generic phenomenon. BoNs admit a 4-dimensional description as singular Coleman-de Luccia bounces of the size modulus field, stabilized by some potential $V(\varphi )$. We apply the tunneling potential approach to this 4d description to provide a very simple picture of BoNs. Using it we identify four different types of BoN, corresponding to different classes of higher dimensional theories. We study the quenching of BoN decays and their interplay with standard vacuum decays.

Comments: 7 pages