COLLAPSING SUBCRITICAL BUBBLES

In the standard scenario, the electroweak phase transition is a first order phase transition which completes by the nucleation of critical bubbles. Recently, there has been speculation that the standard picture of the electroweak phase transition is incorrect. Instead, it has been proposed that throughout the phase transition appreciable amounts of both broken and unbroken phases of SU(2) coexist in equilibrium. I argue that this cannot be the case. General principles insure that the universe will remain in a homogeneous state of unbroken SU (2 ) until the onset of critical bubble production.