Is the mean-field approximation so bad? A simple generalization yelding realistic critical indices for 3D Ising-class systems

Modification of the renormalization-group approach, invoking Stratonovich transformation at each step, is proposed to describe phase transitions in 3D Ising-class systems. The proposed method is closely related to the mean-field approximation. The low-order scheme works well for a wide thermal range, is consistent with a scaling hypothesis and predicts very reasonable values of critical indices.Comment: 4 page

A strongly first order electroweak phase transition from strong symmetry-breaking interactions

We argue that a strongly first order electroweak phase transition is natural in the presence of strong symmetry-breaking interactions, such as technicolor. We demonstrate this using an effective linear scalar theory of the symmetry-breaking sector.Comment: LaTex, 15 pages, 3 figures in EPS format. Phys. Rev. D approved Typographically Correct version, minor grammatical change