Systematics of the Electroweak Plasma at Finite Temperature II

Abstract

This paper extends the treatment of the polarisation tensor for the electroweak plasma to encompass all the preliminaries needed for a thorough study of its characteristics as they affect the early Universe. The detailed development of the one-loop polarisation tensor calculated in a previous paper includes the construction of the basis tensors in terms of which the polarisation tensor is most conveniently expressed. The polarisation response functions are obtained next and there follows a detailed discussion of the real and imaginary parts of the polarisation tensor. These are the essential tools for the subsequent study of the mode structure and dissipation properties of the electroweak plasma.