The Sphaleron rate: Bodeker's leading log

Oct, 1998
34 pages
Published in:
  • Nucl.Phys.B 568 (2000) 367-404
e-Print:
Report number:
  • MCGILL-98-28

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Abstract:
Bodeker has recently shown that the high temperature sphaleron rate, which measures baryon number violation in the hot standard model, receives logarithmic corrections to its leading parametric behavior; Gamma = kappa' [log(m_D / g^2 T) + O(1)] (g^2 T^2 / m_D^2) \alpha_W^5 T^4. After discussing the physical origin of these corrections, I compute the leading log coefficient numerically; kappa' = 10.8 pm 0.7. The log is fairly small relative to the O(1) ``correction;'' so nonlogarithmic contributions dominate at realistic values of the coupling.
  • sphaleron
  • baryon number: violation
  • Wilson loop
  • leading logarithm approximation
  • gauge field theory: Yang-Mills
  • finite temperature
  • lattice field theory
  • Chern-Simons number
  • infrared problem
  • gauge field theory: SU(2)