Vacuum Decay Constraints on a Cosmological Scalar Field

Abstract

If the potential of a scalar field, Phi, which currently provides the ``dark energy'' of the universe, has a negative minimum -M_0^4, then quantum-mechanical fluctuations could nucleate a bubble of Phi at a negative value of the potential. The bubble would expand at the speed of light. Given that no such bubble enveloped us in the past, we find that any minimum in V(Phi) must be separated from the current Phi value by more than min{1.5M_0, 0.21M_Pl}, where M_Pl is the Planck mass. We also show that vacuum decay renders a cyclic or ekpyrotic universe with M_0^4 > 10^{-10}M_Pl^4, untenable.