Effective potential in non-perturbative gauge theories

Abstract

We consider a formalism to describe the false-vacuum decay of a scalar field in gauge theories in non-perturbative regimes. We find that the larger the gauge coupling with respect to the self-coupling of the scalar, the shallower the local minimum of the unstable vacuum, to the point where it disappears. This offers the possibility to obtain a consistent picture of early universe cosmology: at high temperatures, a false-vacuum decay is strongly favoured and the universe naturally evolves towards a stable state.

Comments: 15 pages, 3 figures, version accepted for publication in International Journal of Modern Physics D