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

An effective one-loop action built from the soliton field itself for the tw o-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 der ivative 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 s oliton-antisoliton pair production rate Gamma /L=A exp[-S-0] is calculated and one recovers Stone's exponential factor S-0 and the prefactor A of Kise lev, Selivanov, and Voloshin. The results are also valid straightforwardly to the problem of pair creation rate of domain walls in dimensions D greate r than or equal to3. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.