We investigate the role played by fast quenching on the decay of metastable (or false vacuum) states. Instead of the exponentially slow decay rate per unit volume, ${\Gamma }_{\mathrm{HN}}\sim \exp [-E_b/k_{B}T]$ ($E_b$ is the free energy of the critical bubble), predicted by homogeneous nucleation theory, we show that under fast enough quenching the decay rate is a power law ${\Gamma }_{\mathrm{RN}}\sim [E_b/k_{B}T{]}^{-B}$, where $B$ is weakly sensitive to the temperature. For a range of parameters, large-amplitude oscillations about the metastable state trigger the resonant emergence of coherent subcritical configurations. Decay mechanisms for different $E_b$ are proposed and illustrated in a $(2+1)$-dimensional scalar field model.

• Received 28 August 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.151601