Nonperturbative Analysis of the Electroweak Phase Transition in the Two Higgs Doublet Model

Abstract

We perform a nonperturbative study of the electroweak phase transition (EWPT) in the two Higgs doublet model (2HDM) by deriving a dimensionally reduced high-temperature effective theory for the model, and matching to known results for the phase diagram of the effective theory. We find regions of the parameter space where the theory exhibits a first-order phase transition. In particular, our findings are consistent with previous perturbative results suggesting that the primary signature of a first-order EWPT in the 2HDM is $m_{A_0}>m_{H_0}+m_Z$.

Comments: 13 pages, v2: references added, two loop scan results and discussion of dimension 6 operators added; v3: corrected minor errors in scanning, added discussion of model constraints; v4: title changed, further minor changes to body, added plot of effective potential, published in PRL