Harman, Christopher P D and Huber, Stephan J (2016) Does zero temperature decide on the nature of the electroweak phase transition? Journal of High Energy Physics, 2016 (5). ISSN 1029-8479

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Abstract

Taking on a new perspective of the electroweak phase transition, we investigate in detail the role played by the depth of the electroweak minimum (“vacuum energy difference”). We find a strong correlation between the vacuum energy difference and the strength of the phase transition. This correlation only breaks down if a negative eigen-value develops upon thermal corrections in the squared scalar mass matrix in the broken vacuum before the critical temperature. As a result the scalar fields slide across field space toward the symmetric vacuum, often causing a significantly weakened phase transition. Phenomenological constraints are found to strongly disfavour such sliding scalar scenarios. For several popular models, we suggest numerical bounds that guarantee a strong first order electroweak phase transition. The zero temperature phenomenology can then be studied in these parameter regions without the need for any finite temperature calculations. For almost all non-supersymmetric models with phenomenologically viable parameter points, we find a strong phase transition is guaranteed if the vacuum energy difference is greater than −8.8 × 107 GeV4. For the GNMSSM, we guarantee a strong phase transition for phenomenologically viable parameter points if the vacuum energy difference is greater than −6.9×107 GeV4. Alternatively, we capture more of the parameter space exhibiting a strong phase transition if we impose a simultaneous bound on the vacuum energy difference and the singlet mass.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences > Physics and Astronomy
Research Centres and Groups:	Theoretical Particle Physics Research Group
Depositing User:	Richard Chambers
Date Deposited:	17 Jan 2017 12:21
Last Modified:	23 Jan 2018 12:26
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/66236

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