Instanton transition in thermal and moduli deformed de Sitter cosmology

Understand

We consider the de Sitter cosmology deformed by the presence of a thermal bath of radiation and/or time-dependent moduli fields.

• Depending on the parameters, either a first or second order phase transition can occur.
• In the first case, an instanton allows a double analytic continuation.
• It induces a probability to enter the inflationary evolution by tunnel effect from another cosmological solution.