GAUGE-INVARIANT TREATMENT OF THE ELECTROWEAK PHASE-TRANSITION

We evaluate the gauge invariant effective potential for the composite field sigma = 2PHI(dagger)PHI in the SU(2)-Higgs model at finite temperature. Symmetric and broken phases correspond to the domains sigma less-than-or-equal-to /3 and sigma > T2/3, respectively. The effective potential increases very steeply at small values of sigma. Predictions for several observables, derived from the ordinary and the gauge invariant effective potential, are compared. Good agreement is found for the critical temperature and the jump in the order parameter. The results for the latent heat differ significantly for large Higgs masses.