Physics
Scientific paper
May 1990
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1990phrvd..41.3024a&link_type=abstract
Physical Review D (Particles and Fields), Volume 41, Issue 10, 15 May 1990, pp.3024-3037
Physics
18
Scientific paper
Motivated by a recently proposed ``extended'' inflation scenario, we apply the formalism of Coleman and De Luccia to the false-vacuum decay of a scalar field coupled to a scalar-tensor theory of gravity. In particular, we discuss a model for false-vacuum decay of a scalar field σ minimally coupled in a Brans-Dicke-like theory of gravity. In such theories, the effective gravitational constant is a function of a scalar field φ. In general, φ will have nontrivial dynamics in the false vacuum, and as φ varies the decay rate of the σ false vacuum need not be constant. We present both an explicit ``thin-wall'' calculation of the decay rate, and a more general numerical ``thick-wall'' calculation, comparing them to the standard results for Einstein gravity. We consider some questions of principle concerning boundary conditions for the φ field. We discuss the consequences of these results for extended models of inflation.
Accetta Frank S.
Romanelli Paul
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