Related papers: Effective dynamics of soft non-abelian gauge field…
I try to explain some recent progress in understanding the non-perturbative dynamics of hot non-Abelian gauge theories. The non-perturbative physics is due to soft spatial momenta $|\vec{p}|\sim g^2 T$ where $g$ is the gauge coupling and…
In hot non-Abelian gauge theories, processes characterized by the momentum scale $g^2 T$ (such as electroweak baryon number violation in the very early universe) are non-perturbative. An effective theory for the soft ($|\vec{p}|\sim g^2 T$)…
The dynamics of soft ($|\vec{p}|\sim g^2 T$) non-Abelian gauge fields at finite temperature is non-perturbative. The effective theory for the soft fields can be obtained by first integrating out the momentum scale T, which yields the well…
For a high temperature non-Abelian plasma, we reformulate the hard thermal loop approximation as an effective classical thermal field theory for the soft modes. The effective theory is written in local Hamiltonian form, and the thermal…
The dynamics of soft ($|\vec{p}|\sim g^2 T$) non-Abelian gauge fields at finite temperature is non-perturbative. The effective theory for the soft scale is determined by diagrams with external momenta $p_0\lsim g^2 T$, $|\vec{p}|\sim g^2 T$…
The time evolution of soft modes in a quantum gauge field theory is to first approximation classical, but the equations of motion are non-local. We show how they can be written in a local and Hamiltonian way in an Abelian theory, and that…
The dynamics of weakly coupled, non-abelian gauge fields at high temperature is non-perturbative if the characteristic momentum scale is of order |k|~ g^2 T. Such a situation is typical for the processes of electroweak baryon number…
We derive a set of equations describing the real time dynamics of modes with spatial momentum of order g^2 T in a high temperature gauge theory, where g is the coupling constant and T is the temperature. This dynamics is stochastic in…
The real-time dynamics of finite-temperature gauge theories can be approximated, to leading-order accuracy in the coupling constants, by a classical field theory with the hard thermal loop Lagrangian. I show how this approach can be used in…
The dynamics of high temperature gauge fields, on scales relevant for non-perturbative phenomena such as electroweak baryogenesis, may be described by a remarkably simple effective theory. This theory, which takes the form of a local,…
We test at the electroweak scale the recently proposed elaborate theoretical scenario for real-time dynamics of non-abelian gauge theories at high temperature. We see no sign of the predicted behavior. This indicates that perturbative…
I explain, as simply and pedagogically as I can, recent arguments that the high-temperature baryon number violation rate depends on the electroweak coupling as $\Gamma = # \alpha_\w^5 T^4$ (up to higher order corrections). This is in…
The effective dynamics of the low-frequency modes is derived for the O(N) symmetric scalar field theory in the broken symmetry phase. The effect of the high-frequency fluctuations is taken into account at one-loop level exactly. A new…
The non-Abelian analog of electrical conductivity at high temperature has previously been known only at leading logarithmic order: that is, neglecting effects suppressed only by an inverse logarithm of the gauge coupling. We calculate the…
It has recently been argued that the rate per unit volume of baryon number violation (topological transitions) in the hot, symmetric phase of electroweak theory is of the form $\eta \alpha_w^5 T^4$ in the weak-coupling limit, where $\eta$…
I discuss some non-perturbative aspects of hot gauge theories as related to the unscreened static magnetic interactions. I first review some of the infrared divergences which cause the breakdown of the perturbation theory. Then I show that…
Axions coupled to thermal non-Abelian gauge fields may have cosmological significance. As the heat bath defines a frame, its influence depends separately on energy and momentum. A light-like momentum ($k \approx \omega$) is relevant for the…
Many aspects of high-temperature gauge theories, such as the electroweak baryon number violation rate, color conductivity, and the hard gluon damping rate, have previously been understood only at leading logarithmic order (that is,…
Perturbation theory for non-abelian gauge theories at finite temperature is plagued by infrared divergences which are caused by magnetic soft modes ~g^2T, corresponding to gluon fields of a 3d Yang-Mills theory. While the divergences can be…
We derive the hard thermal loop action for soft electromagnetic fields in the finite temperature world-line formulation at imaginary time, by first integrating out the hard fermion modes from the microscopic QED action. Further, using the…