Gravitational instability of empty Minkowski space-time

It is shown that empty Minkowski space-time is unstable in the presence of a massive scalar quantum field coupled to gravitation, provided the dimensionless parameter Km2 exceeds the threshold value Kmsub(th)2= 288π2. This instability condition is identical with the existence condition for a recently proposed self-consistent cosmology. This is in strong analogy to a phase transition, with critical point at Kmsub(th)2, the two phases being Minkowski and De Sitter spaces. (orig.)