Cosmological Phase transitions from Lattice Field Theory

TL;DR

This paper reviews lattice field theory simulations indicating that the electroweak and QCD phase transitions do not occur in nature, with physical observables changing smoothly with temperature, impacting early universe cosmology.

Contribution

It provides a non-perturbative lattice analysis showing the absence of sharp phase transitions for electroweak and QCD in the early universe.

Findings

Electroweak transition is a smooth crossover.

QCD transition is a smooth crossover.

Physical observables vary smoothly with temperature.

Abstract

In this proceedings contribution we discuss the fate of the electroweak and the quantum chromodynamics phase transitions relevant for the early stage of the universe at non-zero temperature. These phase transitions are related to the Higgs mechanism and the breaking of chiral symmetry, respectively. We will review that non-perturbative lattice field theory simulations show that these phase transitions actually do not occur in nature and that physical observables show a completely smooth behaviour as a function of the temperature.