On Non-Perturbative Effects at the High-Temperature Electroweak Phase Transition

Abstract

It is argued that confining effects in 3-dimensional non-Abelian gauge theories (high-temperature limit of 4-dimensional ones) imply the existence of the condensates of the gauge and Higgs fields in 3-d vacuum. This non-perturbative effect can decrease the energy of the phase with unbroken symmetry and may result in the creation of a barrier separating the broken and unbroken phases. Thus the high-temperature phase transitions in gauge theories can be stronger first order than is expected from perturbation theory. The applications of these results to electroweak baryogenesis are briefly discussed.

13 pages (Latex with 3 PostScript figures appended at end), CERN-TH.6918/93