Paper detail

Effective Potentials and Symmetry Restoration in the Chiral Abelian Higgs Model

The chiral Abelian Higgs model is studied at finite temperature. By integrating out the heavy modes, we make a three-dimensional effective theory for the static modes. It is demonstrated that the plasma masses are correctly reproduced to leading order in $m^{2}/T^{2}$. The effective potential for the composite operator $ϕ^{\dagger}ϕ$ is calculated at one loop for the resulting three-dimensional theory and it is shown that the result is gauge parameter invariant. The numerical investigation of the potential reveals that the symmetry is restored via a first order phase transition. Comparison with the ordinary ring improved potential is made and it is found that the barrier height at $T_{c}$ is somewhat higher.