  We consider a formalism to describe the false-vacuum decay of a scalar field
in gauge theories in non-perturbative regimes. We find that the larger the
gauge coupling with respect to the self-coupling of the scalar, the shallower
the local minimum of the unstable vacuum, to the point where it disappears.
This offers the possibility to obtain a consistent picture of early universe
cosmology: at high temperatures, a false-vacuum decay is strongly favoured and
the universe naturally evolves towards a stable state.
