First Principles Calculation of the Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe: Generalities and Application

Details First Principles Calculation of the Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe: Generalities and Application First Principles Calculation of the Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe: Generalities and Application

Apr 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009nupha.820..199g&link_type=abstract

Nuclear Physics A, Volume 820, Issue 1-4, p. 199-202c.

Physics

Nuclear Physics

3

Finite-Temperature Field Theory, Extensions Of Electroweak Gauge Sector, Decays Of Heavy Neutrinos, Particle-Theory And Field-Theory Models Of The Early Universe

Scientific paper

We present a formalism that allows the computation of the lepton asymmetry of the universe from first principles of statistical physics and quantum field theory (this lepton asymmetry is then converted to a baryon asymmetry via sphaleron processes). This formalism includes a thermal bath of Standard Model particles (active neutrinos) coupled to a new sector that is out-of-equilibrium (sterile neutrinos). The key point that allows a first principles computation is that the number of sterile neutrinos produced during the relevant cosmological period remains small (we assume zero sterile neutrinos initially). In such a case, it is possible to expand the formal solution of Liouville's equation perturbatively and obtain a master formula for the lepton asymmetry expressed in terms of non-equilibrium Wightman functions. The master formula neatly separates CP-violating contributions from finite temperature correlation functions and satisfies all three Sakharov conditions. These correlation functions can then be evaluated perturbatively; the validity of the perturbative expansion depends on the parameters of the model considered. Here we choose the νMSM (i.e. a minimal extension of the Standard Model that includes three generations of sterile neutrinos with masses of the order of the electroweak scale) to illustrate the use of the formalism, but it could in principle be applied to other models.

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