Meaning of false vacuum | Babel Free

Definitions

A (hypothetical) metastable vacuum whose energy state is at a local minimum different from the global minimum; a vacuum that is relatively stable and long-lived but which still may decay to a lower-energy state.

Equivalents

Examples

“1989, Alan Guth, Paul Steinhardt, The inflationary universe, Paul Davies, The New Physics, Cambridge University Press⟳, 2000 (1992) Paperback Edition, page 57, The energy density of the false vacuum can be attributed entirely to the Higgs fields. Furthermore, as can be seen in figure⟳ 3.5, any deviation of the Higgs fields from their false-vacuum values would require⟳ an increase⟳ in energy density. This implies that the false vacuum has a peculiar property which distinguishes it from all familiar materials: when the volume of a region of false vacuum is increased, the energy density cannot decrease, but instead remains at a constant value.”

“2010, Sean Carroll, From Eternity to Here, Oneworld Publications, eBook Edition, When a field is stuck in a false vacuum, it wants to decay to the lower-energy true vacuum.”

“False vacua play⟳ an important role in models of the inflationary universe and elsewhere. In the following we consider⟳ first (after some recapitulations) a simple model⟳ of a false vacuum.”

CEFR level