Nonequilibrium quantum dynamics of phase transitions in an expanding universe
Abstract
I summarize the derivation of a set of Feynman rules appropriate for the perturbative description of the nonequilibrium dynamics of the symmetry-breaking phase transition in $\lambda\phi^4$ theory in a Robertson-Walker universe. The approximation scheme I develop provides for a treatment of dissipative effects which are essential to an adequate description of the nonequilibrium state. It also provides for the emergence from an initially symmetric state of a final state exhibiting the properties of spontaneous symmetry breaking without the introduction by hand of any explicit symmetry breaking.
- Publication:
-
arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- September 1998
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.hep-ph/9809469
- arXiv:
- arXiv:hep-ph/9809469
- Bibcode:
- 1998hep.ph....9469L
- Keywords:
-
- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
- E-Print:
- 7pages, using RevTeX, no figures. Contribution to 5th International Workshop on Thermal Field Theories (Regensburg, August 1998). A few explanatory remarks added