Symmetry Nonrestoration at High Temperature in Little Higgs Models

A detailed study of the high temperature dynamics of the scalar sector of Little Higgs scenarios, proposed to stabilize the electroweak scale, shows that the electroweak gauge symmetry remains broken even at temperatures much larger than the electroweak scale. Although we give explicit results for a particular modification of the Littlest Higgs model, we expect that the main features are generic. As a spin-off, we introduce a novel way of dealing with scalar fluctuations in nonlinear sigma models, which might be of interest for phenomenological applications.Comment: 23 pages, LaTeX, 4 figure

Phase Transitions at Preheating

Symmetry restoration processes during the non-equilibrium stage of ``preheating'' after inflation is studied. It is shown that symmetry restoration is very efficient when the majority of created particles are concentrated at energies much smaller than the temperature $T$ in equilibrium. The strength of symmetry restoration measured in terms of the equivalent temperature can exceed $T$ by many orders of magnitude. In some models the effect can be equivalent to that if the temperature of instant reheating would be close to the Planck scale. This can have an important impact on GUT and axion models.Comment: Some statements are corrected. Also, comments of the referee of Phys. Lett. B are taken into account; 12 pages, no figures, LaTe

The U.V. Price for Symmetry Non-Restoration

We study the non restoration of symmetries with a local order parameter in field theory at finite temperature. After giving an interpretation of the phenomenon, we show that hierarchy problems are a necessary condition for its realization in renormalizable theories. We then use a large N treatment, and find that high temperature symmetry can stay broken in this limit (in opposition with a previous result), and further that the running of couplings reinforces the effect in the simplest model with two scalars.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figs. Changes: added a discussion on trilinear couplings in section 2 to meet referee's questio

1/N Expansion in Correlated Graphene

We examine the 1/N expansion, where N is the number of two-component Dirac fermions, for Coulomb interactions in graphene with a gap of magnitude $\Delta = 2 m$. We find that for $N\alpha\gg1$, where $\alpha$ is graphene's "fine structure constant", there is a crossover as a function of distance $r$ from the usual 3D Coulomb law, $V(r) \sim 1/r$, to a 2D Coulomb interaction, $V(r) \sim \ln(N\alpha/mr)$, for $m^{-1} \ll r \ll m^{-1} N \alpha/6$. This effect reflects the weak "confinement" of the electric field in the graphene plane. The crossover also leads to unusual renormalization of the quasiparticle velocity and gap at low momenta. We also discuss the differences between the interaction potential in gapped graphene and usual QED for different coupling regimes.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures; expanded presentation, references adde

The Large N Limit and the High Temperature Phase Transition for the \phi^4 Theory

We study, with various methods (standard large N evaluation of the functional integral for the effective potential, solution of the Schwinger-Dyson equations), the high temperature phase transition for the $N$-component $\phi^4$ theory in the large $N$ limit. Our results fully confirm a previous investigation of the problem, for arbitrary $N$, with the method of the average potential which employs renormalization group ideas. The phase transition is of the second order with an effectively three-dimensional critical behaviour. }Comment: DESY-93-004, 23 pages, 2 figures available by fax upon reques

Soliton solutions of the improved quark mass density-dependent model at finite temperature

The improved quark mass density-dependent model (IQMDD) based on soliton bag model is studied at finite temperature. Appling the finite temperature field theory, the effective potential of the IQMDD model and the bag constant $B(T)$ have been calculated at different temperatures. It is shown that there is a critical temperature $T_{C}\simeq 110 \mathrm{MeV}$. We also calculate the soliton solutions of the IQMDD model at finite tmperature. It turns out that when $T<T_{C}$, there is a bag constant $B(T)$ and the soliton solutions are stable. However, when $T>T_{C}$ the bag constant $B(T)=0$ and there is no soliton solution, therefore, the confinement of quarks are removed quickly.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures; Version to appear in Physical Review

Rayleigh-Ritz Variational Approximation and Symmetry Nonrestoration

The investigation of symmetry nonrestoration scenarios has led to a controversy, with certain nonperturbative approximation schemes giving indications in sharp disagreement with those found within conventional perturbation theory. A Rayleigh-Ritz variational approach to the problem, which might be useful in bridging the gap between perturbative and nonperturbative viewpoints, is here proposed. As a first application, this approach is used in the investigation of a $Z_2 \times Z_2$-invariant thermal field theory with two scalar fields, placing particular emphasis on the region of parameter space that has been claimed to support symmetry nonrestoration.Comment: 9 pages, LaTex. To be published in Physics Letters

Extended Thomas-Fermi Density Functional for the Unitary Fermi Gas

We determine the energy density $\xi (3/5) n \epsilon_F$ and the gradient correction $\lambda \hbar^2(\nabla n)^2/(8m n)$ of the extended Thomas-Fermi (ETF) density functional, where $n$ is number density and $\epsilon_F$ is Fermi energy, for a trapped two-components Fermi gas with infinite scattering length (unitary Fermi gas) on the basis of recent diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) calculations [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 99}, 233201 (2007)]. In particular we find that $\xi=0.455$ and $\lambda=0.13$ give the best fit of the DMC data with an even number $N$ of particles. We also study the odd-even splitting $\gamma N^{1/9} \hbar \omega$ of the ground-state energy for the unitary gas in a harmonic trap of frequency $\omega$ determining the constant $\gamma$. Finally we investigate the effect of the gradient term in the time-dependent ETF model by introducing generalized Galilei-invariant hydrodynamics equations.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; corrected some typos; published in Phys. Rev. A; added erratum: see also the unpublished diploma thesis of Marco Manzoni (supervisors: N. Manini and L. Salasnich) at http://www.mi.infm.it/manini/theses/manzoni.pd