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High Temperature Field Theory Beyond Perturbation Theory

Christof Wetterich
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Abstract

For realistic values of the Higgs boson mass the high temperature electroweak phase transition cannot be described perturbatively. The symmetric phase is governed by a strongly interacting $SU(2)$ gauge theory. Typical masses of excitations and scales of condensates are set by the ``high temperature confinement scale'' $\approx 0.2\ T$. For a Higgs boson mass around 100 GeV or above all aspects of the phase transition are highly nonperturbative. Near the critical temperature strong electroweak interactions are a dominant feature also in the phase with spontaneous symmetry breaking. Depending on the value of the Higgs boson mass the transition may be a first order phase transition or an analytical crossover.

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Christof Wetterich. 1995-02-06. High Temperature Field Theory Beyond Perturbation Theory. https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9408054

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