False Vacuum Decay in QCD within an Effective Lagrangian Approach

Abstract

In an effective Lagrangian approach to QCD we nonperturbatively calculate an analytic approximation to the decay rate of a false vacuum per unit volume, $Γ/V$. We do so for both zero and high temperature theories. This result is important for the study of the early universe at around the time of the QCD phase transition. It is also important in order to determine the possibility of observing this false vacuum decay at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Previously described dramatic signatures of the decay of false vacuum bubbles would occur in our case as well.