False vacuum decay: effective one-loop action for pair creation of domain walls

Abstract

An effective one-loop action built from the soliton field itself for the two-dimensional (2D) problem of soliton pair creation is proposed. The action consists of the usual mass term and a kinetic term in which the simple derivative of the soliton field is replaced by a covariant derivative. In this effective action the soliton charge is treated no longer as a topological charge but as a Noether charge. Using this effective one-loop action, the soliton-antisoliton pair production rate is calculated and one recovers Stone's exponential factor and the prefactor of Kiselev, Selivanov and Voloshin. The results are also valid straightforwardly to the problem of pair creation rate of domain walls in dimensions greater than 2.