Cosmic Lockdown: When Decoherence Saves the Universe from Tunneling
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arXiv
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| Auteurs principaux: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Publié: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866917333312733184 |
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| author | Christie, Robson Joo, Jaewoo Kaplanek, Greg Vennin, Vincent Wands, David |
| author_facet | Christie, Robson Joo, Jaewoo Kaplanek, Greg Vennin, Vincent Wands, David |
| contents | We investigate how quantum decoherence influences the tunneling dynamics of quantum fields in cosmological spacetimes. Specifically, we study a scalar field in an asymmetric double-well potential during inflation, coupled to environmental degrees of freedom provided by a continuum of spectator fields. This setup enables a systematic derivation of both Markovian and non-Markovian master equations, along with their stochastic unravelings, which we solve numerically. We find that, while decoherence is essential for suppressing quantum interference between vacua, its impact on the relative vacuum populations is limited. Fields heavier than the Hubble scale relax adiabatically toward the true vacuum with high probability, while lighter fields exhibit non-adiabatic enhancements of false-vacuum occupation. Once the system has decohered, quantum tunneling between vacua becomes strongly suppressed, effectively locking the system into the stochastically selected local minimum. This ``cosmic lockdown'' mechanism is a manifestation of the quantum Zeno effect: environmental monitoring stabilizes enhanced false-vacuum occupation for light fields by preventing them from tunneling. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_14204 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Cosmic Lockdown: When Decoherence Saves the Universe from Tunneling Christie, Robson Joo, Jaewoo Kaplanek, Greg Vennin, Vincent Wands, David High Energy Physics - Theory General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology Quantum Physics 83Fxx (Primary) 81S22 81S25 81S30 (Secondary) We investigate how quantum decoherence influences the tunneling dynamics of quantum fields in cosmological spacetimes. Specifically, we study a scalar field in an asymmetric double-well potential during inflation, coupled to environmental degrees of freedom provided by a continuum of spectator fields. This setup enables a systematic derivation of both Markovian and non-Markovian master equations, along with their stochastic unravelings, which we solve numerically. We find that, while decoherence is essential for suppressing quantum interference between vacua, its impact on the relative vacuum populations is limited. Fields heavier than the Hubble scale relax adiabatically toward the true vacuum with high probability, while lighter fields exhibit non-adiabatic enhancements of false-vacuum occupation. Once the system has decohered, quantum tunneling between vacua becomes strongly suppressed, effectively locking the system into the stochastically selected local minimum. This ``cosmic lockdown'' mechanism is a manifestation of the quantum Zeno effect: environmental monitoring stabilizes enhanced false-vacuum occupation for light fields by preventing them from tunneling. |
| title | Cosmic Lockdown: When Decoherence Saves the Universe from Tunneling |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Theory General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology Quantum Physics 83Fxx (Primary) 81S22 81S25 81S30 (Secondary) |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.14204 |