No Arabic abstract
Several relevant aspects of quantum-field processes can be well described by semiclassical methods. In particular, the knowledge of non-trivial classical solutions of the field equations, and the thermal and quantum fluctuations around them, provide non-perturbative information about the theory. In this work, we discuss the calculation of the one-loop effective action from the semiclasssical viewpoint. We intend to use this formalism to obtain an accurate expression for the decay rate of non-static metastable states.
We present a non-perturbative lattice calculation of the form factors which contribute to the amplitudes for the radiative decays $Pto ell bar u_ell gamma$, where $P$ is a pseudoscalar meson and $ell$ is a charged lepton. Together with the non-perturbative determination of the corrections to the processes $Pto ell bar u_ell$ due to the exchange of a virtual photon, this allows accurate predictions at $O(alpha_{em})$ to be made for leptonic decay rates for pseudoscalar mesons ranging from the pion to the $D_s$ meson. We are able to separate unambiguously and non-pertubatively the point-like contribution, from the structure-dependent, infrared-safe, terms in the amplitude. The fully non-perturbative $O(a)$ improved calculation of the inclusive leptonic decay rates will lead to the determination of the corresponding Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix elements also at $O(alpha_{em})$. Prospects for a precise evaluation of leptonic decay rates with emission of a hard photon are also very interesting, especially for the decays of heavy $D$ and $B$ mesons for which currently only model-dependent predictions are available to compare with existing experimental data.
The leading-order electromagnetic and strong isospin-breaking corrections to the ratio of $K_{mu 2}$ and $pi_{mu 2}$ decay rates are evaluated for the first time on the lattice, following a method recently proposed. The lattice results are obtained using the gauge ensembles produced by the European Twisted Mass Collaboration with $N_f = 2 + 1 + 1$ dynamical quarks. Systematics effects are evaluated and the impact of the quenched QED approximation is estimated. Our result for the correction to the tree-level $K_{mu 2} / pi_{mu 2}$ decay ratio is $-1.22,(16) %$ to be compared to the estimate $-1.12,(21) %$ based on Chiral Perturbation Theory and adopted by the Particle Data Group.
Oscillons are extremely long-lived, spatially-localized field configurations in real-valued scalar field theories that slowly lose energy via radiation of scalar waves. Before their eventual demise, oscillons can pass through (one or more) exceptionally stable field configurations where their decay rate is highly suppressed. We provide an improved calculation of the non-trivial behavior of the decay rates, and lifetimes of oscillons. In particular, our calculation correctly captures the existence (or absence) of the exceptionally long-lived states for large amplitude oscillons in a broad class of potentials, including non-polynomial potentials that flatten at large field values. The key underlying reason for the improved (by many orders of magnitude in some cases) calculation is the systematic inclusion of a spacetime-dependent effective mass term in the equation describing the radiation emitted by oscillons (in addition to a source term). Our results for the exceptionally stable configurations, decay rates, and lifetime of large amplitude oscillons (in some cases $gtrsim 10^8$ oscillations) in such flattened potentials might be relevant for cosmological applications.
We present quantum mechanical calculations of Auger decay rates for two Rubidium Rydberg atoms with weakly overlapping electron clouds. We neglect exchange effects and consider tensor products of independent atom states forming an approximate basis of the two-electron state space. We consider large sets of two-atom states with randomly chosen quantum numbers and find that the charge overlap between the two Rydberg electrons allows one to characterise the magnitude of the Auger decay rates. If the electron clouds overlap by more than one percent, the Auger decay rates increase approximately exponentially with the charge overlap. This finding is independent of the energy of the initial state.
We present a simple interpolation formula for the rate of an electron transfer reaction as a function of the electronic coupling strength. The formula only requires the calculation of Fermi Golden Rule and Born-Oppenheimer rates and so can be combined with any methods that are able to calculate these rates. We first demonstrate the accuracy of the formula by applying it to a one dimensional scattering problem for which the exact quantum mechanical, Fermi Golden Rule, and Born-Oppenheimer rates are readily calculated. We then describe how the formula can be combined with the Wolynes theory approximation to the Golden Rule rate, and the ring polymer molecular dynamics (RPMD) approximation to the Born-Oppenheimer rate, and used to capture the effects of nuclear tunnelling, zero point energy, and solvent friction on condensed phase electron transfer reactions. Comparison with exact hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM) results for a demanding set of spin-boson models shows that the interpolation formula has an error comparable to that of RPMD rate theory in the adiabatic limit, and that of Wolynes theory in non-adiabatic limit, and is therefore as accurate as any method could possibly be that attempts to generalise these methods to arbitrary electronic coupling strengths.