Nagoya University: Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute for the Origin of Particles and the Universe (KMI)

Nagoya University

Japanese


KMI Topics
"Lifetime of a vacuum"
Yutaro Shoji
(KMI, Nagoya University)
September 12, 2018 (Wed) 17:30-
KMI Science Symposia (ES635)
Abstract:

The fate of the Universe has been an attracting topic in particle physics and cosmology. A possible scenario of such is that our Universe is in a meta-stable vacuum (false vacuum) and it decays into another vacuum (true vacuum). The phase transition between the two vacua begins with a small region falling into the true vacuum. Then, such a bubble of the true vacuum expands with almost the speed of light, destroying the structure of the Universe. Finally, the Universe is completely covered by the bubble(s) and ends. In the standard model of particle physics, our vacuum is likely to be a false vacuum and the rate of having such a bubble is an interesting physical quantity. We have performed a precise calculation of the rate and obtained a lifetime that is much longer than the age of the Universe.