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PreprintCC BY-NC-SA 4.0arXiv

Polyakov Loops Tame Phase Transitions

  • Lisa Biermann
  • Joydeep Chakrabortty
  • Christoph Englert
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Abstract

We estimate the impact of Polyakov loop (PL) contributions on electroweak phase transitions (PTs). We show that the PL, which is unavoidable in thermal gauge field theory, tends to tame thermal contributions, thereby softening electroweak PTs and affecting bubble dynamics, nucleation, and the related gravitational-wave spectrum. Including this non-perturbative contribution in perturbative approaches results in a thermal effective potential that disfavours first-order PTs over either second-order PTs or smooth cross-overs. This feature is universal for both fermionic and bosonic contributions to the effective potential.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{biermann2026polyakov,
  title = {{Polyakov Loops Tame Phase Transitions}},
  author = {Lisa Biermann and Joydeep Chakrabortty and Christoph Englert},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2607.06203},
  eprint = {2607.06203},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.06203},
  note = {CC BY-NC-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - Polyakov Loops Tame Phase Transitions
AU  - Lisa Biermann
AU  - Joydeep Chakrabortty
AU  - Christoph Englert
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/30
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2607.06203
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.06203
AB  - We estimate the impact of Polyakov loop (PL) contributions on electroweak phase transitions (PTs). We show that the PL, which is unavoidable in thermal gauge field theory, tends to tame thermal contributions, thereby softening electroweak PTs and affecting bubble dynamics, nucleation, and the related gravitational-wave spectrum. Including this non-perturbative contribution in perturbative approaches results in a thermal effective potential that disfavours first-order PTs over either second-order PTs or smooth cross-overs. This feature is universal for both fermionic and bosonic contributions to the effective potential.
ER  -