Particle production induced by vacuum decay in real time dynamics

Abstract

We discuss particle production associated with vacuum decay, which changes the mass of a scalar field coupled to a background field which induces the decay. By utilizing the Stokes phenomenon, we can optimally track the time evolution of the mode function and hence calculate particle production properly. In particular, we use real time formalisms for vacuum decay in Minkowski and de Sitter spacetime together with the Stokes phenomenon method. For each case, we consider the flyover vacuum decay model and stochastic inflation, respectively. Within the real time formalism, the particle production can be viewed as that caused by nontrivial external fields. This gives us a novel perspective of the real time formalism of vacuum decay.