Nucleation at Finite Temperature: A Gauge-Invariant Perturbative Framework

Open Access

Nucleation at Finite Temperature: A Gauge-Invariant Perturbative Framework

Johan Löfgren, Michael J. Ramsey-Musolf, Philipp Schicho, and Tuomas V. I. Tenkanen

Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 251801 – Published 21 June 2023

Abstract

We present a gauge-invariant framework for bubble nucleation in theories with radiative symmetry breaking at high temperature. As a procedure, this perturbative framework establishes a practical, gauge-invariant computation of the leading order nucleation rate, based on a consistent power counting in the high-temperature expansion. In model building and particle phenomenology, this framework has applications such as the computation of the bubble nucleation temperature and the rate for electroweak baryogenesis and gravitational wave signals from cosmic phase transitions.

Received 24 January 2022
Revised 6 March 2023
Accepted 18 May 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.251801

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP³.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Baryogenesis & leptogenesis Effective field theory Finite temperature field theory Gauge theories Perturbation theory Spontaneous symmetry breaking

Particles & Fields

Authors & Affiliations

Johan Löfgren ^1,*, Michael J. Ramsey-Musolf^2,3,4,5,†, Philipp Schicho ^6,‡, and Tuomas V. I. Tenkanen ^4,5,7,§

¹Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden
²Amherst Center for Fundamental Interactions, Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA
³Kellogg Radiation Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125 USA
⁴Tsung-Dao Lee Institute and School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China
⁵Shanghai Key Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology, Key Laboratory for Particle Astrophysics & Cosmology (MOE), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
⁶Department of Physics and Helsinki Institute of Physics, P.O. Box 64, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
⁷Nordita, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University, Roslagstullsbacken 23, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden