The determinant κ of thermal fluctuations around the sphaleron configuration of the (1+1)-dimensional Abelian Higgs model is computed in the limit of large temperatures using approximations based on Schwinger's proper-time representation. When the gauge-boson mass MW exceeds the scalar-boson mass MH these approximations give results which agree well with the known closed-form expressions for the determinant. For MW≤MH, however, the approximations fail to give accurate estimates. Implications for estimating the sphaleron prefactor of electroweak theory are briefly discussed.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
L. Carson (1990) studied this question.