Destabilizing Tachyonic Vacua at or above the BF Bound

Abstract

It is well known that tachyonic vacua in an asymptotically Anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime are classically stable if the mass squared is at or above the Breitenlohner and Freedman (BF) bound. We study the quantum stability of these tachyonic vacua in terms of instantons. We find a series of exact instanton solutions destabilizing tachyonic state at or above the BF bound in asymptotically AdS space. We also give an analytic formula for the decay rate and show that it is finite. Comparing our result with the well-known algebraic condition for the stability, we discuss stability conditions of tachyonic vacua at or above the BF bound. Subject Index: 135, 454