First-order electroweak phase transitions: a nonperturbative update

TL;DR

This paper performs nonperturbative lattice simulations to study first-order electroweak phase transitions, providing updated and detailed calculations of key transition parameters and comparing results with perturbative predictions.

Contribution

It offers the first nonperturbative lattice results for electroweak phase transition parameters, extending previous studies and validating perturbative approaches in certain regimes.

Findings

Critical temperature and latent heat values obtained

Surface tension and bubble nucleation rates calculated

Comparison shows good agreement with perturbation theory in specific regions

Abstract

We study first-order electroweak phase transitions nonperturbatively, assuming any particles beyond the Standard Model are sufficiently heavy to be integrated out at the phase transition. Utilising high temperature dimensional reduction, we perform lattice Monte-Carlo simulations to calculate the main quantities characterising the transition: the critical temperature, the latent heat, the surface tension and the bubble nucleation rate, updating and extending previous lattice studies. We focus on the region where the theory gives first-order phase transitions due to an effective reduction in the Higgs self-coupling and give a detailed comparison with perturbation theory.