Electroweak interaction

About: Electroweak interaction is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 16333 publications have been published within this topic receiving 468927 citations. The topic is also known as: electroweak force.

Towards the theory of the electroweak phase transition

Abstract: We investigate various problems related to the theory of the electroweak phase transition. This includes determination of the nature of the phase transition, discussion of the possible role of the higher-order radiative corrections, and the theory of the formation and evolution of bubbles of the new phase. We show, in particular, that no dangerous linear terms in the scalar field $\ensuremath{\varphi}$ appear in the expression for the effective potential. We have found that, for the Higgs-boson mass smaller than the masses of $W$ and $Z$ bosons, the phase transition is of the first order. However, its strength is approximately ⅔ times less than what follows from the one-loop approximation. The phase transition occurs due to production and expansion of critical bubbles. Subcritical bubbles may be important only if the phase transition is very weakly first order. A general analytic expression for the probability of the bubble formation is obtained, which may be used for study of tunneling in a wide class of theories. The bubble-wall velocity depends on many factors, including the ratio of the mean free path of the particles to the thickness of the wall. Thin walls in the electroweak theory have a nonrelativistic velocity, whereas thick walls may be relativistic. A decrease of the cubic term by the factor ⅔ rules out baryogenesis in the minimal version of the electroweak theory. Even though we concentrate in this paper on the phase transition in this theory, most of our results can be applied to more general models as well, where baryogenesis is possible.

Orientifold theory dynamics and symmetry breaking

Abstract: We show that it is possible to construct explicit models of electroweak symmetry breaking in which the number of techniflavors needed to enter the conformal phase of the theory is small and weakly dependent on the number of technicolors. Surprisingly, the minimal model with just two (techni)flavors, together with a suitable gauge dynamics, can be made almost conformal. The theories we consider are generalizations of orientifold-type gauge theories, in which the fermions are in either two-index symmetric or antisymmetric representation of the gauge group, as the underlying dynamics responsible for the spontaneous breaking of the electroweak symmetry. We first study their phase diagram and use the fact that specific sectors of these theories can be mapped into supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory to strengthen our results. This correspondence allows us also to have information on part of the nonperturbative spectrum. We propose and investigate some explicit models while briefly exploring relevant phenomenological consequences. Our theories can not only be tested at the next collider experiments but, due to their simple structure, can also be studied via current lattice simulations.

Electroweak baryogenesis and standard model CP violation.

Abstract: We analyze the mechanism of electroweak baryogenesis proposed by Farrar and Shaposhnikov in which the phase of the CKM mixing matrix is the only source of [ital CP] violation. This mechanism is based on a phase separation of baryons via the scattering of quasiparticles by the wall of an expanding bubble produced at the electroweak phase transition. In agreement with the recent work of Gavela, Hernandez, Orloff, and Pene, we conclude the QCD damping effects reduce the asymmetry produced to a negligible amount. We interpret the damping as quantum decoherence. We compute the asymmetry analytically. Our analysis reflects the observation that only a thin, outer layer of the bubble contributes to the coherent scattering of the quasiparticles. The generality of our arguments rules out any mechanism of electroweak baryogenesis that does not make use of a new source of [ital CP] violation.