Work

Radiatively induced first-order phase transitions the necessity of the renormalization group

Year: 1994

Type: article

Abstract: We advocate a (Wilson) renormalization-group (RG) treatment of finite-temperature first-order phase transitions, in particular those driven by radiative corrections such as occur in the standard model, and other spontaneously broken gauge theories. We introduce the scale-dependent coarse-grained free energy SΛ[φ] which we explicitly calculate, using the Wilson RG and a (4 − ε)-expansion, for a scalar toy model that shares many features of the gauged case. As argued by Langer and others, the dynamics of the phase transition are described by SΛ[φ] with 1/Λ of order the bubble wall thickness, and not by the usual (RG-improved) finite-temperature effective action which is reproduced by SΛ[φ] for Λ → 0. We argue that for weakly first-order transitions (such as that in the he (4 − ε)-expansion is necessary to control an inevitable growth of the effective scale-dependent coupling towards the strong-coupling regime, and that diagrammatic resummation techniques are unlikely to be appropriate.

Source: Nuclear Physics B

DOI: 10.1016/0550-3213(94)90483-9

Authors: Mark Alford, John March-Russell

Institutions: Cornell University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Language: English

Topic: Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies

Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid:

Funder: U.S. Department of Energy