Simulating the electroweak phase transition in the SU(2) Higgs model

Abstract Numerical simulations are performed to study the finite temperature phase transition in the SU (2) Higgs model on the lattice. In the presently investigated range of the Higgs boson mass, below 50 GeV, the phase transition turns out to be of first order and its strength is rapidly decreasing with increasing Higgs boson mass. In order to control the systematic errors, we also perform studies of scaling violations and of finite volume effects.