We calculate the one-loop effective potential at finite temperature for a system of massless scalar fields with quartic interaction $lambdaphi^4$ in the framework of the boundary effective theory (BET) formalism. The calculation relies on the solution of the classical equation of motion for the field, and Gaussian fluctuations around it. Our result is non-perturbative and differs from the standard one-loop effective potential for field values larger than $T/sqrt{lambda}$.
In this paper, we compute the constrained QCD effective potential up to two-loop order with finite quark mass and chemical potential. We present the explicit calculations by using the double line notation and analytical expressions for massless quarks are obtained in terms of the Bernoulli polynomials or Polyakov loops. Our results explicitly show that the constrained QCD effective potential is independent on the gauge fixing parameter. In addition, as compared to the massless case, the constrained QCD effective potential with massive quarks develops a completely new term which is only absent when the background field vanishes. Furthermore, we discuss the relation between the one- and two-loop constrained effective potential. The surprisingly simple proportionality that exists in the pure gauge theories, however, is in general no longer true when fermions are taken into account. On the other hand, for high baryon density $mu_B$ and low temperature $T$, in the massless limit, we do also find a similar proportionality between the one- and two-loop fermionic contributions in the constrained effective potential up to ${cal O}(T/mu_B)$.
The perturbative effective potential suffers infrared (IR) divergences in gauges with massless Goldstones in their minima (like Landau or Fermi gauges) but the problem can be fixed by a suitable resummation of the Goldstone propagators. When the potential minimum is generated radiatively, gauge-independence of the potential at the minimum also requires resummation and we demonstrate that the resummation that solves the IR problem also cures the gauge-dependence issue, showing this explicitly in the Abelian Higgs model in Fermi gauge. In the process we find an IR divergence (in the location of the minimum) specific to Fermi gauge and not appreciated in recent literature. We show that physical observables can still be computed in this gauge and we further show how to get rid of this divergence by a field redefinition. All these results generalize to the Standard Model case.
We address again the old problem of calculating the radion effective potential in Randall-Sundrum scenarios, with the Goldberger-Wise stabilization mechanism. Various prescriptions have been used in the literature, most of them based on heuristic derivations and then applied in some approximations. We define rigorously a light radion 4D effective action by using the interpolating field method. For a given choice of the interpolating field, defined as a functional of 5D fields, the radion effective action is uniquely defined by the procedure of integrating out the other fields, with the constrained 5D equations of motion always satisfied with help of the Lagrange multipliers. Thus, for a given choice of the interpolating fields we obtain a precise prescription for calculating the effective potential. Different choices of the interpolating fields give different prescriptions but in most cases very similar effective potentials. We confirm the correctness of one prescription used so far on a more heuristic basis and also find several new, much more economical, ways of calculating the radion effective potential. Our general considerations are illustrated by several numerical examples. It is shown that in some cases the old methods, especially in models with strong back-reaction, give results which are off even by orders of magnitude. Thus, our results are important e.g. for estimation of critical temperature in phase transitions.
We investigate the quark backreaction on the Polyakov loop and its impact on the thermodynamics of quantum chromodynamics. The dynamics of the gluons generating the Polyakov-loop potential is altered by the presence of dynamical quarks. However, this backreaction of the quarks has not yet been taken into account in Polyakov-loop extended model studies. In the present work, we show within a 2+1 flavour Polyakov-quark-meson model that a quark-improved Polyakov-loop potential leads to a smoother transition between the low-temperature hadronic phase and the high-temperature quark-gluon plasma phase. In particular, we discuss the dependence of our results on the remaining uncertainties that are the critical temperature and the parametrisation of the Polyakov-loop potential as well as the mass of the sigma-meson.
We comment on the paper Feynman Effective Classical Potential in the Schrodinger Formulation[Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 3303 (1998)]. We show that the results in this paper about the time evolution of a wave packet in a double well potential can be properly explained by resorting to a variational principle for the effective action. A way to improve on these results is also discussed.