Effective Scalar Field Theory for the Electroweak Phase Transition

Abstract

We investigate an effective model for the finite temperature restoration phase transition of the electroweak theory. It is obtained by dimensional reduction of the $3+1$ dimensional full theory and by subsequent integration over all static gauge degrees of freedom. The resulting theory corresponds to a $3$-dimensional $O(4)$ ferromagnet containing cubic and quartic terms of the field in its potential function. Possible nonperturbative effects of a magnetic screening mass are parametrically included in the potential. We analyse the theory using mean field and numerical Monte Carlo (MC) simulation methods. At the value of the physical Higgs mass, $m_H=37\mathrm{GeV}$, considered in the present investigation, we find a discontinuous symmetry restoring phase transition. We determine the critical temperature, order parameter jump, interface tension and latent heat characteristics of the transition. The Monte Carlo results indicate a somewhat weaker first order phase transition as compared to the mean field treatment, demonstrating that non-perturbative fluctuations of the Higgs field are relevant. This effect is especially important for the interface tension. Any observation of hard first order transition could result only from non-perturbative effects related to the gauge degrees of freedom.

28 pages and 18 figures

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Cited by in corpus (20)

• The Electroweak Phase Transition: A Non-Perturbative Analysis
• Electroweak Baryon Number Non-Conservation in the Early Universe and in High Energy Collisions
• Generic Rules for High Temperature Dimensional Reduction and Their Application to the Standard Model
• The universality class of the electroweak theory
• Effective Theories of MSSM at High Temperature
• Exact relation of lattice and continuum parameters in three-dimensional SU(2)+Higgs theories
• On the Mass Spectrum of the SU(2) Higgs Model in 2+1 Dimensions
• THERMODYNAMICS OF THE ELECTROWEAK PHASE TRANSITION
• The Electroweak Phase Transition through the Renormalization Group
• Numerical tests of the electroweak phase transition and thermodynamics of the electroweak plasma
• Interface Tension of the Electroweak Phase Transition
• Scalar-gauge dynamics in (2+1) dimensions at small and large scalar couplings
• Finite T Electroweak Phase Transition on the Lattice
• REDUCTION OF THE N-COMPONENT SCALAR MODEL AT TWO LOOP LEVEL
• Comparison of 4d and 3d Lattice Results for the Electroweak Phase Transition
• The SU(2)-Higgs model on asymmetric lattices
• On the scaling of the electroweak interface tension at finite temperature
• Introduction to Multicanonical Monte Carlo Simulations
• Electroweak phase transition by four dimensional simulations
• Perturbative and non-perturbative studies of the SU(2)-Higgs model on lattices with asymmetric lattice spacings