Electroweak Asymmetric Early Universe via a Scalar Condensate

TL;DR

This paper proposes a minimal model where a scalar condensate with a large global charge asymmetry prevents electroweak symmetry restoration at high temperatures, offering new insights into early universe physics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel minimal scenario where a scalar condensate induces electroweak symmetry non-restoration, differing from previous models requiring many new fields.

Findings

A single complex scalar field can develop a stable condensate due to thermalization.

The condensate maintains electroweak symmetry breaking at high temperatures.

The model provides a minimal benchmark for EW SNR involving scalar condensates.

Abstract

Finite temperature effects in the Standard Model tend to restore the electroweak symmetry in the early universe, but new fields coupled to the higgs field may as well reverse this tendency, leading to the so-called electroweak symmetry non-restoration (EW SNR) scenario. Previous works on EW SNR often assume that the reversal is due to the thermal fluctuations of new fields with negative quartic couplings to the higgs, and they tend to find that a large number of new fields are required. We observe that EW SNR can be minimally realized if the field(s) coupled to the higgs field develop(s) a stable condensate. We show that one complex scalar field with a sufficiently large global-charge asymmetry can develop a condensate as an outcome of thermalization and keep the electroweak symmetry broken up to temperatures well above the electroweak scale. In addition to providing a minimal benchmark model, our work hints on a class of models involving scalar condensates that yield electroweak symmetry non-restoration in the early universe.