Abstract
Recent progress on three issues related to the description of first order phase transitions in field theories is reviewed. Firstly, it is demonstrated how magnetic monopoles can act as impurity sites and mediate inhomogeneous first order phase transitions. Secondly, the growth of bubbles nucleated in the decay process is discussed for the case of systems at non-zero temperature and density. Finally, cases of field theories are shown for which the semiclassical description of a first order phase transition is inaccurate. In all cases, applications to phase transitions in early cosmology is also discussed.
Work supported in part by Department of Energy, Contract No. EY-76-C-02-3071.
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For a discussion of the method of calculation, see Ref. 3.
Actually, there are two reasons why the computation may break down. Firstly, as discussed in M. Sher, Phys. Rev. D to be published (1981), the coupling constant σ, is a function of the temperature, α(T); there is a temperature Ts at which α(T) is on the order of unity and the tree approximation (perturbation theory) can break down. Secondly, as discussed in this section, at some temperature Tb the exponent A(T) is on the order of unity and the semiclassical approximation breaks down. Looking at the calculation by G. Cook and K. Mahanthappa, U. of Colorado at Boulder preprint (1981), one finds Tb > Ts and the semiclassical approximation breaks down first (A. Albrecht and P. Steinhardt, University of Pennsylvania preprint, to be published).
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© 1983 Plenum Press, New York
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Steinhardt, P.J. (1983). Monopoles and Bubbles in the Early Universe. In: Capri, A.Z., Kamal, A.N. (eds) Particles and Fields 2. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3593-1_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3593-1_20
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