Possibility of Electroweak Phase Transition at Low Temperature

TL;DR

This paper explores models of electroweak phase transition occurring at much lower temperatures than traditionally considered, proposing a new class of Higgs potential models that enable strong first order transitions in this regime.

Contribution

The authors introduce a novel class of Higgs effective potential models that allow for strong first order electroweak phase transitions at low temperatures, preserving known features of the massive phase.

Findings

Strong first order transition at temperatures hundreds of times lower.

Modified properties of the symmetry restored massless phase.

Potential implications for early universe cosmology.

Abstract

We study models of strong first order `low' temperature electroweak phase transition. To achieve this we propose a class of Higgs effective potential models which preserve the known features of the present day massive phase. However, the properties of the symmetry restored massless phase are modified in a way that for a large parameter domain we find a strong first order transition occurring at a temperature hundreds of times lower than previously considered possible.