Applications of dimensional reduction to electroweak and QCD matter

TL;DR

This paper reviews how dimensional reduction, an effective field theory method, is applied to study static properties of electroweak and QCD matter at high temperatures, highlighting its utility in simplifying complex thermal calculations.

Contribution

It demonstrates the application of dimensional reduction to electroweak and QCD matter, providing insights into static quantities at high temperatures and connecting different physical systems.

Findings

Dimensional reduction effectively simplifies high-temperature calculations.

Application to electroweak theory yields accurate pressure estimates.

Application to hot QCD provides reliable screening mass predictions.

Abstract

This paper is a slightly modified version of the introductory part of a doctoral dissertation also containing the articles hep-ph/0311268, hep-ph/0510375, hep-ph/0512177 and hep-ph/0701250. The thesis discusses effective field theory methods, in particular dimensional reduction, in the context of finite temperature field theory. We first briefly review the formalism of thermal field theory and show how dimensional reduction emerges as the high-temperature limit for static quantities. Then we apply dimensional reduction to two distinct problems, the pressure of electroweak theory and the screening masses of mesonic operators in hot QCD, and point out the similarities. We summarize the results and discuss their validity, while leaving all details to original research articles.