One-loop fluctuation-dissipation formula for bubble-wall velocity

Abstract

The limiting bubble wall velocity during a first-order electroweak phase transition is of interest in scenarios for electroweak baryogenesis. Khlebnikov has recently proposed an interesting method for computing this velocity based on the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. I demonstrate that at one-loop order this method is identical to simple, earlier techniques for computing the wall velocity based on computing the friction from particles reflecting off or transmitting through the wall in the ideal gas limit.

Comments: 15 pages with 4 PostScript figures, UW/PT-93-2