The Ising model universality of the electroweak theory

Lattice simulations have shown that the first order electroweak phase transition turns into a regular cross-over at a critical Higgs mass m_{H,c}. We have developed a method which enables us to make a detailed investigation of the critical properties of the electroweak theory at m_{H,c}. We find that the transition falls into the 3d Ising universality class. The continuum limit extrapolation of the critical Higgs mass is m_{H,c} = 72(2) GeV, which implies that there is no electroweak phase transition in the Standard Model.Comment: 3 pages, contribution to LATTICE98(electroweak

An all-order discontinuity at the electroweak phase transition

We define a non-local gauge-invariant Green's function which can distinguish between the symmetric (confinement) and broken (Higgs) phases of the hot SU(2)xU(1) electroweak theory to all orders in the perturbative expansion. It is related to the coupling of the Chern-Simons number to a massless Abelian gauge field. The result implies either that there is a way to distinguish between the phases, even though the macroscopic thermodynamical properties of the system have been observed to be smoothly connected, or that the perturbative Coleman-Hill theorem on which the argument is based, is circumvented by non-perturbative effects. We point out that this question could in principle be studied with three-dimensional lattice simulations.Comment: 9 pages; misprint corrected, reference and small clarifications added; to appear in Phys.Lett.

Critical behaviour of the Ginzburg-Landau model in the type II region

We study the critical behaviour of the three-dimensional U(1) gauge+Higgs theory (Ginzburg-Landau model) at large scalar self-coupling \lambda (``type II region'') by measuring various correlation lengths as well as the Abrikosov-Nielsen-Olesen vortex tension. We identify different scaling regions as the transition is approached from below, and carry out detailed comparisons with the criticality of the 3d O(2) symmetric scalar theory.Comment: Lattice2001(higgssusy), 3 page

The non-perturbative QCD Debye mass from a Wilson line operator

According to a proposal by Arnold and Yaffe, the non-perturbative g^2T-contribution to the Debye mass in the deconfined QCD plasma phase can be determined from a single Wilson line operator in the three-dimensional pure SU(3) gauge theory. We extend a previous SU(2) measurement of this quantity to the physical SU(3) case. We find a numerical coefficient which is more accurate and smaller than that obtained previously with another method, but still very large compared with the naive expectation: the correction is larger than the leading term up to T ~ 10^7 T_c, corresponding to g^2 ~ 0.4. At moderate temperatures T ~ 2 T_c, a consistent picture emerges where the Debye mass is m_D ~ 6T, the lightest gauge invariant screening mass in the system is ~ 3T, and the purely magnetic operators couple dominantly to a scale ~ 6T. Electric (~ gT) and magnetic (~ g^2T) scales are therefore strongly overlapping close to the phase transition, and the colour-electric fields play an essential role in the dynamics.Comment: 10 pages; typos corrected, to appear in Phys.Lett.

Results from 3D Electroweak Phase Transition Simulations

We study the phase transition in SU(2)-Higgs model on the lattice using the 3D dimensionally reduced formalism. The 3D formalism enables us to obtain highly accurate Monte Carlo results, which we extrapolate both to the infinite volume and to the continuum limit. Our formalism also provides for a well-determined and unique way to relate the results to the perturbation theory. We measure the critical temperature, latent heat and interface tension for Higgs masses up to 70 GeV.Comment: 4 pages uuencoded postscript, contribution to LATTICE 9

Gauge-invariant strings in the 3d U(1)+Higgs theory

We describe how the strings, which are classical solutions of the continuum three-dimensional U(1)+Higgs theory, can be studied on the lattice. The effect of an external magnetic field is also discussed and the first results on the string free energy are presented. It is shown that the string free energy can be used as an order parameter when the scalar self-coupling is large and the transition is continuous.Comment: LATTICE98(higgs); missing author added, no changes to tex

Four-loop logarithms in 3d gauge + Higgs theory

We discuss the logarithmic contributions to the vacuum energy density of the three-dimensional SU(3) + adjoint Higgs theory in its symmetric phase, and relate them to numerical Monte Carlo simulations. We also comment on the implications of these results for perturbative and non-perturbative determinations of the pressure of finite-temperature QCD.Comment: 3 pages, Lattice2002(nonzerot

The Electroweak Phase Transition in a Magnetic Field

We study the finite temperature electroweak phase transition in an external hypercharge U(1) magnetic field H_Y, using lattice Monte Carlo simulations. For sufficiently small fields, H_Y/T^2 < 0.3, the magnetic field makes the first order transition stronger, but it still turns into a crossover for Higgs masses m_H ~ 80 GeV. For larger fields, we observe a mixed phase analogous to a type I superconductor, where a single macroscopic tube of the symmetric phase, parallel to H_Y, penetrates through the broken phase. For the magnetic fields and Higgs masses studied, we did not see indications of the expected Ambjorn-Olesen phase, which should be similar to a type II superconductor.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures. Discussion on lattice results extended. To appear in Nucl.Phys.

Measuring infrared contributions to the QCD pressure

For the pressure (or free energy) of QCD, four-dimensional (4d) lattice data is available at zero baryon density up to a few times the critical temperature $T_c$. Perturbation theory, on the other hand, has serious convergence problems even at very high temperatures. In a combined analytical and three-dimensional (3d) lattice method, we show that it is possible to compute the QCD pressure from about $2 T_c$ to infinity. The numerical accuracy is good enough to resolve in principle, e.g., logarithmic contributions related to 4-loop perturbation theory.Comment: 3 pages; talk by Y. Schroder at Lattice2001(hightemp