Dynamics of Non-renormalizable Electroweak Symmetry Breaking

TL;DR

This paper calculates the finite temperature effective potential for electroweak symmetry breaking with higher dimensional operators, analyzing phase transition dynamics and implications for baryogenesis and gravitational wave detection.

Contribution

It provides a complete one-loop finite temperature analysis of electroweak symmetry breaking with non-renormalizable operators, including bubble nucleation and supercooling effects.

Findings

Identifies parameter space for strong first-order phase transition.

Discusses potential gravitational wave signals from the phase transition.

Addresses issues like infrared divergences and imaginary contributions.

Abstract

We compute the complete one-loop finite temperature effective potential for electroweak symmetry breaking in the Standard Model with a Higgs potential supplemented by higher dimensional operators as generated for instance in composite Higgs and Little Higgs models. We detail the resolution of several issues that arise, such as the cancellation of infrared divergences at higher order and imaginary contributions to the potential. We follow the dynamics of the phase transition, including the nucleation of bubbles and the effects of supercooling. We characterize the region of parameter space consistent with a strong first-order phase transition which may be relevant to electroweak baryogenesis. Finally, we investigate the prospects of present and future gravity wave detectors to see the effects of a strong first-order electroweak phase transition.