Finite Temperature Effective Potential for Spontaneously Broken $\lambda \Phi^4$ Theory

Abstract

We present a self-consistent calculation of the finite temperature effective potential for $\lambda \Phi^4$ theory in four dimensions using a composite operator effective action. We find that in a spontaneously broken theory not only the so-called daisy and superdaisy graphs contribute to the next-to-leading order thermal mass, but also resummed non-local diagrams are of the same order, thus altering the effective potential at small effective mass.