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Quantum tunneling between degenerate ground states through the central barrier of a potential is extended to excited states with the instanton method. This extension is achieved with the help of an LSZ reduction technique as in field theory and may be of importance in the study of macroscopic quantum phenomena in magnetic systems.
Significance of zero modes in path-integral quantization of solitonic theories with BRST invariance
(1996)
The significance of zero modes in the path-integral quantization of some solitonic models is investigated. In particular a Skyrme-like theory with topological vortices in (1 + 2) dimensions is studied, and with a BRST invariant gauge fixing a well defined transition amplitude is obtained in the one loop approximation. We also present an alternative method which does not necessitate evoking the time-dependence in the functional integral, but is equivalent to the original one in dealing with the quantization in the background of the static classical solution of the non-linear field equations. The considerations given here are particularly useful in - but also limited to -the one-loop approximation.
The constraint structure of the induced 2D-gravity with the Weyl and area-preserving diffeomorphism invariances is analysed in the ADM formulation. It is found that when the area-preserving diffeomorphism constraints are kept, the usual conformal gauge does not exist, whereas there is the possibility to choose the so-called "quasi-light-cone" gauge, in which besides the area-preserving diffeomorphism invariance, the reduced Lagrangian also possesses the SL(2,R) residual symmetry. This observation indicates that the claimed correspondence between the SL(2,R) residual symmetry and the area-preserving diffeomorphism invariance in both regularisation approaches does not hold. The string-like approach is then applied to quantise this model, but a fictitious non-zero central charge in the Virasoro algebra appears. When a set of gauge-independent SL(2,R) current-like fields is introduced instead of the string-like variables, a consistent quantum theory is obtained, which means that the area-preserving diffeomorphism invariance can be maintained at the quantum level.
Skyrme Sphalerons of an O(3)-oe Model and the Calculation of Transition Rates at Finite Temperature
(1997)
The reduced O(3)-oe model with an O(3) ! O(2) symmetry breaking potential is considered with an additional Skyrmionic term, i. e. a totally antisymmetric quartic term in the field derivatives. This Skyrme term does not affect the classical static equations of motion which, however, allow an unstable sphaleron solution. Quantum fluctuations around the static classical solution are considered for the determination of the rate of thermally induced transitions between topologically distinct vacua mediated by the sphaleron. The main technical effect of the Skyrme term is to produce an extra measure factor in one of the fluctuation path integrals which is therefore evaluated using a measure-modified Fourier-Matsubara decomposition (this being one of the few cases permitting this explicit calculation). The resulting transition rate is valid in a temperature region different from that of the original Skyrme-less model, and the crossover from transitions dominated by thermal fluctuations to those dominated by tunneling at the lower limit of this range depends on the strength of the Skyrme coupling.
The pure-Skyrme limit of a scale-breaking Skyrmed O(3) sigma model in 1+1 dimensions is employed to study the effect of the Skyrme term on the semiclassical analysis of a field theory with instantons. The instantons of this model are self-dual and can be evaluated explicitly. They are also localised to an absolute scale, and their fluctuation action can be reduced to a scalar subsystem. This permits the explicit calculation of the fluctuation determinant and the shift in vacuum energy due to instantons. The model also illustrates the semiclassical quantisation of a Skyrmed field theory.
Abstract: The transition from the instanton-dominated quantum regime to the sphaleron-dominated classical regime is studied in the d = 2 abelian-Higgs model when the spatial coordinate is compactified to S1. Contrary to the noncompactified case, this model allows both sharp first-order and smooth second-order transitions depending on the size of the circle. This finding may make the model a useful toy model for the analysis of baryon number violating processes.
Abstract: The point-particle-like Hamiltonian of a biaxial spin particle with external magnetic field along the hard axis is obtained in terms of the potential field description of spin systems with exact spin-coordinate correspondence. The Zeeman energy term turns out to be an effective gauge potential which leads to a nonintegrable phase of the Euclidean Feynman propagator. The phase interference between clockwise and anticlockwise under barrier propagations is recognized explicitly as the Aharonov-Bohm effect. An additional phase which is significant for quantum phase interference is discovered with the quantum theory of spin systems besides the known phase obtained with the semiclassical treatment of spin. We also show the energy dependence of the effect and obtain the tunneling splitting at excited states with the help of periodic instantons.
A pure Yang-Mills theory extended by addition of a quartic term is considered in order to study the transition from the quantum tunneling regime to that of classical, i.e. thermal, behaviour. The periodic field confiurations are found, which interpolate between the vacuum and sphaleron field configurations. It is shown by explicit calculation that only smooth second order transitions occur for all permissible values of the parameter A introduced with the quartic term. The theory is one of the rare cases which canbe handled analytically.
Abstract: The transition from the quantum to the classical regime of the nucleation of the closed Robertson-Walker Universe with spacially homogeneous matter fields is investigated with a perturbation expansion around the sphaleron configuration. A criterion is derived for the occurrence of a first-order type transition, and the related phase diagram for scalar and vector fields is obtained. For scalar fields both the first and second order transitions can occur depending on the shape of the potential barrier. For a vector field, here that of an O (3) nonlinear o-model, the transition is seen to be only of the first order. PACS numbers: 11.15.Kc, 03.65Sq, 05.70.Fh, 98.80.Cq