W and Higgs particle distributions during electroweak tachyonic preheating

Abstract

We study out-of-equilibrium quasi-particle distributions of the Higgs and W fields during the zero-temperature tachyonic electroweak transition that has been assumed in recent scenarios of baryogenesis. Approximating the process by a fast quench, we perform classical real-time lattice simulations in the SU(2)-Higgs model. The emerging quasi-particle numbers and energies are then used to determine the effective temperatures, chemical potentials and masses of the particles shortly after the transition.