VACUUM TUNNELING OF GAUGE THEORY IN MINKOWSKI SPACE

We study vacuum tunneling of non-Abelian gauge theory directly in Minkowski space. We do this by constructing a family of field configurations which connects vacuums of different winding numbers and which satisfies conditions necessary and sufficient to produce maximum tunneling amplitude. Using these explicit configurations we obtain explicitly the potential-energy barrier in winding-number space, through which tunneling occurs. We finally discuss the possible connections among the tunneling solution, the classical solution, and the full quantum-mechanical solution to the field equations. © 1978 The American Physical Society.