Diploma thesis
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Andreas Ipp Diplomarbeit (PDF) (1.040 kB)
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DIPLOMARBEIT
Phase Transition of a Scalar Field Theory in the Early Universe
ausgeführt am Institut für Theoretische Physik der Technischen Universität Wien
unter der Anleitung von
Ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Anton Rebhan (Technische Universität Wien)
und
Prof. Laurence Yaffe (University of Washington, Seattle)
durch
Andreas Ipp
Wien, 16. Februar 2000
Abstract:
Measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation show a primary inhomogeneity in the temperature distribution of the order of $ \delta T/T\sim 10^{-5}$. The inflationary theory explains this inhomogeneity to be primeval quantum fluctuations expanded to galactic scales. Inflation is driven by the phase transition of a scalar field. In this work we analyze the non-equilibrium evolution of the effective scalar field mass through a phase transition in an expanding space-time background starting from an initial thermal equilibrium. The real-time formalism for a curved background metric is used to express the propagator in terms of mode functions. The one-loop mass correction is calculated from the Green function. A WKB-like approximation is applied to the resulting system of differential equations and an analytical expression for the scalar field mass is found in the high-temperature limit. Comparing this result to numerical calculations, we find that the analytical expression describes the scalar field mass pretty accurately far beyond the first classical turning point of the lowest mode function.
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Andreas Ipp Diplomarbeit (PDF) (1.040 kB)
© 2002-2003, Andreas Ipp