Aspects of Gravitational Vacuum Stability

by Dr Ivano Basile (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa)

Monday 20 May 2019, 14:30 → 15:30 Europe/Rome

Monte Sant'Angelo1G09

We present some results about vacuum decay in the context of String Theory vacua without supersymmetry. The talk is divided in two parts. In the first part we work within a low-energy effective theory and we discuss classical instabilities, driven by small field fluctuations about Anti-de Sitter (AdS) backgrounds. We present the stability criteria for masses in this setting and the implications on AdS vacua of this class of theories.

 

In the second part of the talk we discuss quantum instabilities. In order to go beyond the semi-classical regime, where they are described by Coleman-de Luccia vacuum bubbles, we propose a holographic framework based on the AdS/CFT correspondence, where instabilities are dual to RG flows in the boundary field theory. We conclude briefly discussing a D-brane configuration that provides an interpretation to both types of instabilities.