Marc Barroso Mancha | Searcharxiv

arXiv2023

The Sphaleron Rate from 4D Euclidean Lattices

We develop a new method to determine thermal activation rates, such as for bubble nucleation, topology change, \textsl{etc.}, using 4-dimensional Euclidean methods. This allows nonperturbative study on the lattice. We then investigate the strong sphaleron rate in pure-glue QCD at temperatures between 1.3 $\Tc$ and 1000 $T_\mathrm{c}$, making contact with previous results but extending them down close to the critical temperature. The extension to full QCD will be straightforward. Limitations of the proposal (the inability to compute a certain dynamical prefactor, puzzling large-volume behavior, and the inability to treat temperatures $T < 1.3 \, T_\mathrm{c}$) are also discussed.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2021

Field-theoretic derivation of bubble-wall force

We derive a general quantum field theoretic formula for the force acting on expanding bubbles of a first order phase transition in the early Universe setting. In the thermodynamic limit the force is proportional to the entropy increase across the bubble of active species that exert a force on the bubble interface. When local thermal equilibrium is attained, we find a strong friction force which grows as the Lorentz factor squared, such that the bubbles quickly reach stationary state and cannot run away. We also study an opposite case when scatterings are negligible across the wall (ballistic limit), finding that the force saturates for moderate Lorentz factors thus allowing for a runaway behavior. We apply our formalism to a massive real scalar field, the standard model and its simple portal extension. For completeness, we also present a derivation of the renormalized, one-loop, thermal energy-momentum tensor for the standard model and demonstrate its gauge independence.

hep-th↗