Effective potential in non-perturbative gauge theories

TL;DR

This paper introduces a formalism for analyzing false-vacuum decay in non-perturbative gauge theories, revealing how gauge coupling strength influences vacuum stability and implications for early universe cosmology.

Contribution

It develops a new formalism to describe false-vacuum decay in non-perturbative gauge theories, linking gauge coupling strength to vacuum stability.

Findings

Larger gauge coupling makes the false vacuum shallower and eventually disappears.

False-vacuum decay is favored at high temperatures, guiding universe evolution.

Provides a consistent picture of early universe phase transitions.

Abstract

We consider a formalism to describe the false-vacuum decay of a scalar field in gauge theories in non-perturbative regimes. We find that the larger the gauge coupling with respect to the self-coupling of the scalar, the shallower the local minimum of the unstable vacuum, to the point where it disappears. This offers the possibility to obtain a consistent picture of early universe cosmology: at high temperatures, a false-vacuum decay is strongly favoured and the universe naturally evolves towards a stable state.