title: Resonant nucleation.
abstract: We investigate the role played by fast quenching on the decay of metastable (or false vacuum) states. Instead of the exponentially slow decay rate per unit volume, Gamma(HN) approximately exp([-E(b)/k(B)T] (E(b) is the free energy of the critical bubble), predicted by homogeneous nucleation theory, we show that under fast enough quenching the decay rate is a power law Gamma(RN) approximately [E(b)/k(B)T](-B), where B is weakly sensitive to the temperature. For a range of parameters, large-amplitude oscillations about the metastable state trigger the resonant emergence of coherent subcritical configurations. Decay mechanisms for different E(b) are proposed and illustrated in a (2+1)-dimensional scalar field model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA.
authors.forename: Marcelo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gleiser
authors.forename: Rafael C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Howell