Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2508.13780 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Many-body theory of false vacuum decay in quantum spin chains

Anonymous, Alessio Recati, Iacopo Carusotto, Alberto Biella

Published Aug 17, 2026• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In this work, we theoretically investigate the false vacuum decay process in a ferromagnetic quantum spin-1/2 chain. We develop a many-body theory describing the nucleation and the coherent dynamics of true-vacuum bubbles that is analytically tractable and agrees with numerical matrix product state calculations in all parameter regimes up to intermediate times. This theory allows us to identify different regimes in the parameter space and unravel the underlying physical mechanisms, thus offering conceptual insight into the microscopic quantum dynamics of metastable states. In particular, analogies and differences with the cosmological false vacuum decay picture are highlighted and characterized in terms of experimentally observable quantities.

DOI
10.1103/kskv-9mhr

Related papers

False vacuum decay in quantum spin chains

Gianluca Lagnese, Federica Maria Surace, Márton Kormos +1 more

The false vacuum decay has been a central theme in physics for half a century with applications to cosmology and to the theory of fundamental interactions. This fascinating phenomenon is even more intriguing when combined with the confinement of elementary particles. Due to the astronomical timescales involved, the research has so far focused on theoretical aspects of this decay. The purpose of this Letter is to show that the false vacuum decay is accessible to current optical experiments as quantum analog simulators of spin chains with confinement of the elementary excitations, which mimic the high energy phenomenology but in one spatial dimension. We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of the false vacuum in a quantum Ising chain and in an XXZ ladder. The false vacuum is the metastable state that arises in the ferromagnetic phase of the model when the symmetry is explicitly broken by a longitudinal field. This state decays through the formation of ``bubbles'' of true vacuum. Using infinite volume time evolving block decimation (iTEBD) simulations, we are able to study the real-time evolution in the thermodynamic limit and measure the decay rate of local observables. We find that the numerical results agree with the theoretical prediction that the decay rate is exponentially small in the inverse of the longitudinal field.

arXiv:2107.10176•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Nov 12, 2021•81 citations

Microscopic Dynamics of False Vacuum Decay in the $2+1$D Quantum Ising Model

Umberto Borla, Achilleas Lazarides, Christian Groß +1 more

False vacuum decay, which is understood to happen through bubble nucleation, is a prominent phenomenon relevant to elementary particle physics and early-universe cosmology. Understanding its microscopic dynamics in higher spatial dimensions is currently a major challenge and research thrust. Recent advances in numerical techniques allow for the extraction of related signatures in tractable systems in two spatial dimensions over intermediate timescales. Here, we focus on the $2+1$D quantum Ising model, where a longitudinal field is used to energetically separate the two $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry-broken ferromagnetic ground states, turning them into a ``true'' and ``false'' vacuum. Using tree tensor networks, we simulate the microscopic dynamics of a spin-down domain in a spin-up background after a homogeneous quench, with parameters chosen so that the domain corresponds to a bubble of the true vacuum in a false-vacuum background. Our study identifies how the ultimate fate of the bubble -- indefinite expansion or collapse -- depends on its geometrical features and on the microscopic parameters of the Ising Hamiltonian. We further provide a realistic quantum-simulation scheme, aimed at probing bubble dynamics on atomic Rydberg arrays.

quant-pharXiv:2601.04305•Jan 9, 2026•0 citations

Confinement and False Vacuum Decay in Quantum Spin Chains

Gianluca Lagnese

The confinement of elementary particles and the decay of the false vacuum are two paradigmatic predictions of quantum field theory. In their simplest formulation, the two phenomena can be understood as two facets of an underlying symmetry-breaking mechanism: the degeneracy of a double-degenerate vacuum is lifted by adding an explicit symmetry-breaking external field. Confined states are false vacuum bubbles within a true vacuum (the true ground state of the model); likewise, false vacuum decay refers to the dissolution of the metastable vacuum through true vacuum bubbles nucleation via quantum tunneling. The interest in this area of research has been recently revamped by the advances in experimental techniques (e.g. trapped ions, ultracold atoms, Rydberg atoms): confinement has already proved to be accessible in condensed matter laboratory experiments while the direct laboratory study of the false vacuum decay is promisingly within reach. Moreover, in the past few decades the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of quantum many-body systems was promoted to the forefront of research in condensed matter physics. I will present relevant investigations of such phenomena in the context of quantum spin chain models through the observation of their real-time dynamics following a quantum quench (the paradigmatic theoretical and experimental protocol for non-equilibrium dynamics).

Conference on Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum (Confinement)•Oct 24, 2025•0 citations

False vacuum decay in a two-dimensional quantum spin system

Luka Pavešić, Ian G. Moss, Simone Montangero

False vacuum decay describes the relaxation of a metastable state through the nucleation and growth of bubbles of the stable phase. Despite describing a broad variety of phenomena across different fields, the quantum version of the nucleation theory has little experimental or numerical support. Testing its predictions is particularly important in two or more spatial dimensions, where bubble nucleation acquires its true geometrical nature. Here, we study false vacuum decay in the quantum Ising model in two dimensions. Through tree tensor network simulations we extract the decay rate, the effective interface tension and the critical bubble size. We compare them to new semi-classical field theory calculations, and find excellent agreement. These results provide numerical evidence that the critical-bubble picture survives in an interacting quantum spin system in 2+1 dimensions.

quant-pharXiv:2607.01994•Jul 3, 2026•0 citations

False vacuum decay via bubble formation in ferromagnetic superfluids

Alessandro Zenesini, Anna Berti, Riccardo Cominotti +7 more

Abstract Metastability is ubiquitous in nature and is observed through the crossing of an energy barrier toward a configuration of lower energy as, for example, in chemical processes [1] or electron field ionization [2]. In classical many-body systems, metastability naturally emerges in the presence of a first-order phase transition and finds a prototypical example in supercooled vapour. In the last decades, the extension to quantum field theory and quantum many-body systems has attracted significant interest in the context of statistical physics [3, 4], protein folding [5, 6], and cosmology [7–9], where thermal and quantum fluctuations are expected to trigger the transition from the metastable state (false vacuum) to the ground state (real vacuum) via the probabilistic nucleation of spatially localized bubbles [10, 11]. However, the long-standing theoretical progress in estimating the relaxation rate of the metastable field via bubble nucleation has not yet found a counterpart in terms of experimental observations. Here we experimentally observe and characterize bubble nucleation in isolated and coherently-coupled atomic superfluids, and support our observations with numerical simulations. The agreement between our results and a novel analytic formula based on instanton theory confirms the quantum-field character of the observed decay, and promotes coherently-coupled atomic superfluids as emulators of out-of-equilibrium quantum field phenomena.

Nature Physics•Jan 22, 2024•57 citations

False vacuum decay and nucleation dynamics in neutral atom systems

Siva Darbha, Milan Kornjača, Fangli Liu +7 more

Metastable states of quantum many-body systems with confinement offer a means to simulate false vacuum phenomenology, including nonequilibrium dynamical processes like decay by nucleation, in truncated limits. Recent work has examined the decay process in one-dimensional (1D) ferromagnetic Ising spins and superfluids. In this paper, we study nucleation dynamics in 1D antiferromagnetic neutral atom chains with Rydberg interactions, using both numerical simulations and analytic modeling. We apply a staggered local detuning field to generate the metastable and ground states. Our efforts focus on two dynamical regimes: decay and annealing. In the first, we corroborate the phenomenological decay rate scaling and determine the associated parameter range for the decay process; in the second, we uncover and elucidate a procedure to anneal the metastable state from the initial to the final system, with intermediate nucleation events. We further propose experimental protocols to prepare the required states and perform quenches on near-term neutral atom quantum simulators, examining the experimental feasibility of our proposed setup and parameter regime.

arXiv:2404.12360•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Oct 2, 2024•13 citations
In this work, we theoretically investigate the false vacuum decay process in a ferromagnetic quantum spin-1/2 chain. We develop a many-body theory describing the nucleation and the coherent dynamics of true-vacuum bubbles that is analytically tractable and agrees with numerical matrix product state calculations in all parameter regimes up to intermediate times. This theory allows us to identify different regimes in the parameter space and unravel the underlying physical mechanisms, thus offering conceptual insight into the microscopic quantum dynamics of metastable states. In particular, analogies and differences with the cosmological false vacuum decay picture are highlighted and characterized in terms of experimentally observable quantities.
The false vacuum decay has been a central theme in physics for half a century with applications to cosmology and to the theory of fundamental interactions. This fascinating phenomenon is even more intriguing when combined with the confinement of elementary particles. Due to the astronomical timescales involved, the research has so far focused on theoretical aspects of this decay. The purpose of this Letter is to show that the false vacuum decay is accessible to current optical experiments as quantum analog simulators of spin chains with confinement of the elementary excitations, which mimic the high energy phenomenology but in one spatial dimension. We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of the false vacuum in a quantum Ising chain and in an XXZ ladder. The false vacuum is the metastable state that arises in the ferromagnetic phase of the model when the symmetry is explicitly broken by a longitudinal field. This state decays through the formation of ``bubbles'' of true vacuum. Using infinite volume time evolving block decimation (iTEBD) simulations, we are able to study the real-time evolution in the thermodynamic limit and measure the decay rate of local observables. We find that the numerical results agree with the theoretical prediction that the decay rate is exponentially small in the inverse of the longitudinal field.
Microscopic Dynamics of False Vacuum Decay in the 2+12+12+1D Quantum Ising Model
False vacuum decay, which is understood to happen through bubble nucleation, is a prominent phenomenon relevant to elementary particle physics and early-universe cosmology. Understanding its microscopic dynamics in higher spatial dimensions is currently a major challenge and research thrust. Recent advances in numerical techniques allow for the extraction of related signatures in tractable systems in two spatial dimensions over intermediate timescales. Here, we focus on the 2+12+12+1D quantum Ising model, where a longitudinal field is used to energetically separate the two Z2\mathbb{Z}_2Z2​ symmetry-broken ferromagnetic ground states, turning them into a ``true'' and ``false'' vacuum. Using tree tensor networks, we simulate the microscopic dynamics of a spin-down domain in a spin-up background after a homogeneous quench, with parameters chosen so that the domain corresponds to a bubble of the true vacuum in a false-vacuum background. Our study identifies how the ultimate fate of the bubble -- indefinite expansion or collapse -- depends on its geometrical features and on the microscopic parameters of the Ising Hamiltonian. We further provide a realistic quantum-simulation scheme, aimed at probing bubble dynamics on atomic Rydberg arrays.
The confinement of elementary particles and the decay of the false vacuum are two paradigmatic predictions of quantum field theory. In their simplest formulation, the two phenomena can be understood as two facets of an underlying symmetry-breaking mechanism: the degeneracy of a double-degenerate vacuum is lifted by adding an explicit symmetry-breaking external field. Confined states are false vacuum bubbles within a true vacuum (the true ground state of the model); likewise, false vacuum decay refers to the dissolution of the metastable vacuum through true vacuum bubbles nucleation via quantum tunneling. The interest in this area of research has been recently revamped by the advances in experimental techniques (e.g. trapped ions, ultracold atoms, Rydberg atoms): confinement has already proved to be accessible in condensed matter laboratory experiments while the direct laboratory study of the false vacuum decay is promisingly within reach. Moreover, in the past few decades the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of quantum many-body systems was promoted to the forefront of research in condensed matter physics. I will present relevant investigations of such phenomena in the context of quantum spin chain models through the observation of their real-time dynamics following a quantum quench (the paradigmatic theoretical and experimental protocol for non-equilibrium dynamics).
False vacuum decay describes the relaxation of a metastable state through the nucleation and growth of bubbles of the stable phase. Despite describing a broad variety of phenomena across different fields, the quantum version of the nucleation theory has little experimental or numerical support. Testing its predictions is particularly important in two or more spatial dimensions, where bubble nucleation acquires its true geometrical nature. Here, we study false vacuum decay in the quantum Ising model in two dimensions. Through tree tensor network simulations we extract the decay rate, the effective interface tension and the critical bubble size. We compare them to new semi-classical field theory calculations, and find excellent agreement. These results provide numerical evidence that the critical-bubble picture survives in an interacting quantum spin system in 2+1 dimensions.
Abstract Metastability is ubiquitous in nature and is observed through the crossing of an energy barrier toward a configuration of lower energy as, for example, in chemical processes [1] or electron field ionization [2]. In classical many-body systems, metastability naturally emerges in the presence of a first-order phase transition and finds a prototypical example in supercooled vapour. In the last decades, the extension to quantum field theory and quantum many-body systems has attracted significant interest in the context of statistical physics [3, 4], protein folding [5, 6], and cosmology [7–9], where thermal and quantum fluctuations are expected to trigger the transition from the metastable state (false vacuum) to the ground state (real vacuum) via the probabilistic nucleation of spatially localized bubbles [10, 11]. However, the long-standing theoretical progress in estimating the relaxation rate of the metastable field via bubble nucleation has not yet found a counterpart in terms of experimental observations. Here we experimentally observe and characterize bubble nucleation in isolated and coherently-coupled atomic superfluids, and support our observations with numerical simulations. The agreement between our results and a novel analytic formula based on instanton theory confirms the quantum-field character of the observed decay, and promotes coherently-coupled atomic superfluids as emulators of out-of-equilibrium quantum field phenomena.
Metastable states of quantum many-body systems with confinement offer a means to simulate false vacuum phenomenology, including nonequilibrium dynamical processes like decay by nucleation, in truncated limits. Recent work has examined the decay process in one-dimensional (1D) ferromagnetic Ising spins and superfluids. In this paper, we study nucleation dynamics in 1D antiferromagnetic neutral atom chains with Rydberg interactions, using both numerical simulations and analytic modeling. We apply a staggered local detuning field to generate the metastable and ground states. Our efforts focus on two dynamical regimes: decay and annealing. In the first, we corroborate the phenomenological decay rate scaling and determine the associated parameter range for the decay process; in the second, we uncover and elucidate a procedure to anneal the metastable state from the initial to the final system, with intermediate nucleation events. We further propose experimental protocols to prepare the required states and perform quenches on near-term neutral atom quantum simulators, examining the experimental feasibility of our proposed setup and parameter regime.