High Temperature Field Theory Beyond Perturbation Theory

Abstract

For realistic values of the Higgs boson mass the high temperature electroweak phase transition cannot be described perturbatively. The symmetric phase is governed by a strongly interacting $SU(2)$ gauge theory. Typical masses of excitations and scales of condensates are set by the ``high temperature confinement scale'' $\approx 0.2\ T$. For a Higgs boson mass around 100 GeV or above all aspects of the phase transition are highly nonperturbative. Near the critical temperature strong electroweak interactions are a dominant feature also in the phase with spontaneous symmetry breaking. Depending on the value of the Higgs boson mass the transition may be a first order phase transition or an analytical crossover.