Fourier-Preconditioned Path Deformations for Multi-Field Vacuum Tunnelling

Abstract

We present an endpoint-safe Fourier method for multi-field vacuum tunnelling. The field-space tunnelling path is written as a straight-line interpolation between the false and true vacua, plus sine-mode deformations that vanish at the endpoints. This gives a finite-dimensional path optimisation problem, which we implement using automatic differentiation in the JAX numerical framework. The method is studied both as a standalone variational ansatz for curved tunnelling paths and as a preconditioner for existing bounce solvers. On the OptiBounce benchmark potential for $N_\phi=3,\ldots,20$ and on a nested random-coefficient potential family up to $N_\phi=50$, the Fourier result agrees with FindBounce, OptiBounce, and CosmoTransitions at the sub-percent level in the regular benchmark cases, while requiring only a modest number of modes. We also compare several endpoint-safe basis families and find that Fourier sine modes provide a robust default for smooth tunnelling paths. When used as an initialiser, the Fourier path supplies useful geometric information to existing solvers before the final bounce calculation is carried out. In the CosmoTransitions tests, this reduces the number of steps in subsequent path deformation, while in the FindBounce point-injection tests, it gives large runtime improvements in the high-dimensional cases up to 90 $\%$. These results suggest that endpoint-safe Fourier paths provide a useful bridge between simple analytic path ans\"atze and fully numerical multi-field bounce algorithms.