false vacuum

Noun

false vacuum (plural false vacuums or false vacua)

1. A (hypothetical) metastable vacuum whose energy state is at a local minimum different from the global minimum; a vacuum that is relatively stable and long-lived but which still may decay to a lower-energy state.
   • The energy density of the false vacuum can be attributed entirely to the Higgs fields. Furthermore, as can be seen in figure 3.5, any deviation of the Higgs fields from their false-vacuum values would require an increase in energy density. This implies that the false vacuum has a peculiar property...1989, Alan Guth, Paul Steinhardt, The inflationary universe, Paul Davies, The New Physics, Cambridge University Press, 2000 (1992) Paperback Edition, page 57
   • When a field is stuck in a false vacuum, it wants to decay to the lower-energy true vacuum.2010, Sean Carroll, From Eternity to Here, Oneworld Publications, eBook Edition