Finite Temperature Reduction of the SU(2) Higgs-Model with Complete Static Background

Abstract

Direct evaluation of the 1-loop fluctuation determinant of non-static degrees of freedom in a complete static background is advocated to be more efficient for the determination of the effective three-dimensional model of the electroweak phase transition than the one-by-one evaluation of Feynman diagrams. The relation of the couplings and fields of the effective model to those of the four-dimensional finite temperature system is determined in the general 't Hooft gauge with full implementation of renormalisation effects. Only field renormalisation constants display dependence on the gauge fixing parameter. Characteristics of the electroweak transition are computed from the effective theory in Lorentz-gauge. The dependence of various physical observables on the three-dimensional gauge fixing parameter is investigated.