Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Coleman--De Luccia tunneling can exhibit an infinite tower of rapidly oscillating negative modes, complicating the semiclassical evaluation of the path integral. We show that this tower does not represent infinitely many bounce-specific instabilities, but instead is tied to a single underlying gravitational conformal sector. This sector is exposed in two different ways: by a large scalar gradient near the bubble wall and by the turning point of a compact Euclidean geometry. The corresponding conformal sector is already present in fluctuations about the false vacuum. Treating the bounce and the false vacuum in the same well-defined gauge and with a common regulator, we find that their high-frequency negative spectra approach one another. The ultraviolet tower therefore cancels from the relative negative-mode count, leaving a single bounce-specific negative mode. This finite-backreaction spectral cancellation provides a corresponding picture of the result obtained in the small-backreaction limit.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Author: Ookouchi, Yutaka
Institution: Kyushu University
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7214920806