Resummation in a Hot Scalar Field Theory

Abstract

A resummed perturbative expansion is used to obtain the self-energy in the high-temperature \(g^2\phi^4\) field theory model up to order $g^4$. From this the zero momentum pole of the effective propagator is evaluated to determine the induced thermal mass and damping rate for the bosons in the plasma to order $g^3$. The calculations are performed in the imaginary time formalism and a simple diagrammatic analysis is used to identify the relevant diagrams at each order. Results are compared with similar real-time calculations found in the literature.

Comments: 26 pages (figures not included)