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Effective field theory approach to thermal bubble nucleation

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arxiv 2108.04377 v2 pith:KTFF3LWU submitted 2021-08-09 hep-ph hep-th

classification hep-phhep-th
keywords nucleationbubblethermalbouncedemonstrateeffectivefieldformalism
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal

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The standard vacuum bounce formalism suffers from inconsistencies when applied to thermal bubble nucleation, for which ad hoc workarounds are commonly adopted. Identifying the length scales on which nucleation takes place, we demonstrate how the construction of an effective description for these scales naturally resolves the problems of the standard vacuum bounce formalism. Further, by utilising high-temperature dimensional reduction, we make a connection to classical nucleation theory. This offers a clear physical picture of thermal bubble nucleation, as well as a computational framework which can then be pushed to higher accuracy. We demonstrate the method for three qualitatively different quantum field theories.

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Forward citations

Cited by 17 Pith papers

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