Cosmological phase transitions: is effective field theory just a toy?

Abstract To obtain a first order phase transition requires large new physics corrections to the Standard Model (SM) Higgs potential. This implies that the scale of new physics is relatively low, raising the question whether an effective field theory (EFT) description can be used to analyse the phase...

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Main Authors: Marieke Postma, Graham White
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2021-03-01
Series:Journal of High Energy Physics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2021)280
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spelling doaj-31085a71d45149b6a53aee2abf715c722021-04-04T11:06:51ZengSpringerOpenJournal of High Energy Physics1029-84792021-03-012021312610.1007/JHEP03(2021)280Cosmological phase transitions: is effective field theory just a toy?Marieke Postma0Graham White1NikhefKavli IPMU (WPI), UTIAS, The University of TokyoAbstract To obtain a first order phase transition requires large new physics corrections to the Standard Model (SM) Higgs potential. This implies that the scale of new physics is relatively low, raising the question whether an effective field theory (EFT) description can be used to analyse the phase transition in a (nearly) model-independent way. We show analytically and numerically that first order phase transitions in perturbative extensions of the SM cannot be described by the SM-EFT. The exception are Higgs-singlet extension with tree-level matching; but even in this case the SM-EFT can only capture part of the full parameter space, and if truncated at dim-6 operators, the description is at most qualitative. We also comment on the applicability of EFT techniques to dark sector phase transitions.https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2021)280Beyond Standard ModelEffective Field TheoriesHiggs Physics
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Marieke Postma
Graham White
spellingShingle Marieke Postma
Graham White
Cosmological phase transitions: is effective field theory just a toy?
Journal of High Energy Physics
Beyond Standard Model
Effective Field Theories
Higgs Physics
author_facet Marieke Postma
Graham White
author_sort Marieke Postma
title Cosmological phase transitions: is effective field theory just a toy?
title_short Cosmological phase transitions: is effective field theory just a toy?
title_full Cosmological phase transitions: is effective field theory just a toy?
title_fullStr Cosmological phase transitions: is effective field theory just a toy?
title_full_unstemmed Cosmological phase transitions: is effective field theory just a toy?
title_sort cosmological phase transitions: is effective field theory just a toy?
publisher SpringerOpen
series Journal of High Energy Physics
issn 1029-8479
publishDate 2021-03-01
description Abstract To obtain a first order phase transition requires large new physics corrections to the Standard Model (SM) Higgs potential. This implies that the scale of new physics is relatively low, raising the question whether an effective field theory (EFT) description can be used to analyse the phase transition in a (nearly) model-independent way. We show analytically and numerically that first order phase transitions in perturbative extensions of the SM cannot be described by the SM-EFT. The exception are Higgs-singlet extension with tree-level matching; but even in this case the SM-EFT can only capture part of the full parameter space, and if truncated at dim-6 operators, the description is at most qualitative. We also comment on the applicability of EFT techniques to dark sector phase transitions.
topic Beyond Standard Model
Effective Field Theories
Higgs Physics
url https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2021)280
work_keys_str_mv AT mariekepostma cosmologicalphasetransitionsiseffectivefieldtheoryjustatoy
AT grahamwhite cosmologicalphasetransitionsiseffectivefieldtheoryjustatoy
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