Electroweak Phase Transition Beyond the Standard Model

Standard theories of electroweak interactions are based on the concept of a gauge symmetry broken by the Higgs mechanism. If they are placed in an environment with a sufficiently high temperature, the symmetry gets restored. It turns out that the characteristics of the symmetry restoring phase transition, such as its order, are important for cosmological applications, such as baryon asymmetry generation. We first briefly review how, by a combination of analytic and numerical methods, the properties of the phase transition can be systematically resolved for any given type of a (weakly interacting) Higgs sector. We then summarise the numerical results available for the Standard Model, and present a generic model independent statement as to how the Higgs sector should differ from the Standard Model for the properties of the transition to be very different. As an explicit example, we discuss the possibilities available for a strong transition in the experimentally allowed parameter region of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.