Effective Field Theory Approach to High-Temperature Thermodynamics

Abstract

An effective field theory approach is developed for calculating the thermodynamic properties of a field theory at high temperature $T$ and weak coupling $g$. The effective theory is the 3-dimensional field theory obtained by dimensional reduction to the bosonic zero-frequency modes. The parameters of the effective theory can be calculated as perturbation series in the running coupling constant $g^2(T)$. The free energy is separated into the contributions from the momentum scales $T$ and $gT$, respectively. The first term can be written as a perturbation series in $g^2(T)$. If all forces are screened at the scale $gT$, the second term can be calculated as a perturbation series in $g(T)$ beginning at order $g^3$. The parameters of the effective theory satisfy renormalization group equations that can be used to sum up leading logarithms of $T/(gT)$. We apply this method to a massless scalar field with a $\Phi^4$ interaction, calculating the free energy to order $g^6 \log g$ and the screening mass to order $g^5 \log g$.