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D. Metaxas

Publications and source records attributed to D. Metaxas.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2012

Symmetry breaking and restoration for interacting scalar and gauge fields in Lifshitz type theories

We consider the one-loop effective potential at zero and finite temperature in field theories with anisotropic space-time scaling, with critical exponent $z=2$, including both scalar and gauge fields. Depending on the relative strength of the coupling constants for the gauge and scalar interactions, we find that there is a symmetry breaking term induced at one-loop at zero temperature and we find symmetry restoration through a first-order phase transition at high temperature.

hep-th↗
arXiv2012

Symmetry breaking and restoration in Lifshitz type theories

We consider the one-loop effective potential at zero and finite temperature in scalar field theories with anisotropic space-time scaling. For $z=2$, there is a symmetry breaking term induced at one-loop at zero temperature and we find symmetry restoration through a first-order phase transition at high temperature. For $z=3$, we considered at first the case with a positive mass term at tree level and found no symmetry breaking effects induced at one-loop, and then we study the case with a negative mass term at tree level where we cannot conclude about symmetry restoration effects at high temperature because of the imaginary parts that appear in the effective potential for small values of the scalar field.

hep-th↗
arXiv2002

Hard thermal loops with a background plasma velocity

I consider the calculation of the two and three-point functions for QED at finite temperature in the presence of a background plasma velocity. The final expressions are consistent with Lorentz invariance, gauge invariance and current conservation, pointing to a straightforward generalization of the hard thermal loop formalism to this physical situation. I also give the resulting expression for the effective action and identify the various terms.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2001

Derivative expansion and gauge independence of the false vacuum decay rate in various gauges

In theories with radiative symmetry breaking, the calculation of the false vacuum decay rate requires the inclusion of higher-order terms in the derivative expansion of the effective action. I show here that, in the case of covariant gauges, the presence of infrared singularities forbids the consistent calculation by keeping the lowest-order terms. The situation is remedied, however, in the case of $R_ξ$ gauges. Using the Nielsen identities I show that the final result is gauge independent for generic values of the gauge parameter $v$ that are not anomalously small.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2000

Non-topological solitons as nucleation sites for cosmological phase transitions

I consider quantum field theories that admit charged non-topological solitons of the Q-ball type, and use the fact that in a first-order cosmological phase transition, below the critical temperature, there is a value of the soliton charge above which the soliton becomes unstable and expands, converting space to the true vacuum, much like a critical bubble in the case of ordinary tunneling. Using a simple model for the production rate of Q-balls through charge accretion during a random walk out of equilibrium, I calculate the probability for the formation of critical charge solitons and estimate the amount of supercooling needed for the phase transition to be completed.

hep-ph↗