End point of the electroweak phase transition

Abstract

We study the hot electroweak phase transition (EWPT) by 4-dimensional lattice simulations on lattices with symmetric and asymmetric lattice spacings and give the phase diagram. A continuum extrapolation is done. We find first order phase transition for Higgs-boson masses $m_H<66.5 \pm 1.4$ GeV. Above this end point a rapid cross-over occurs. Our result agrees with that of the dimensional reduction approach. It also indicates that the fermionic sector of the Standard Model (SM) may be included perturbatively. We get for the SM end point $72.4 \pm 1.7$ GeV. Thus, the LEP Higgs-boson mass lower bound excludes any EWPT in the SM.