Infinite Heat Order in 3+1 Dimensions

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Main Authors: Bajc, Borut, Muco, Giulia, Sannino, Francesco, Wagner, Sophie
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Bajc, Borut
Muco, Giulia
Sannino, Francesco
Wagner, Sophie
author_facet Bajc, Borut
Muco, Giulia
Sannino, Francesco
Wagner, Sophie
contents We investigate whether spontaneous symmetry breaking can persist up to arbitrarily high temperature in ultraviolet-complete quantum field theories in four spacetime dimensions. We focus on completely asymptotically free models with gauge group $\mathrm{SU}(N_{c1})\times \mathrm{SU}(N_{c2})$ and two complex scalar fields, each transforming in the fundamental representation of one gauge factor and singlet under the other. The scalar potential contains quartic self-interactions together with a negative portal coupling between the two sectors. In the Veneziano limit, this class of theories was previously shown to admit fixed-flow trajectories for which one scalar acquires a negative thermal mass at asymptotically large temperature, leading to symmetry non-restoration. Here we extend that analysis to finite numbers of colours and flavours. We derive the finite-$N$ fixed-flow equations, compute the leading $1/N$ corrections to the large-$N$ solutions, and solve the full finite-$N$ system numerically. We find explicit finite-$N$ benchmark theories for which the scalar potential remains bounded from below, the gauge sector is asymptotically free, and one scalar thermal mass stays negative at arbitrarily high temperature. This provides an explicit perturbative example of infinite heat order in a four-dimensional ultraviolet-complete quantum field theory with a finite field content.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_01184
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Infinite Heat Order in 3+1 Dimensions
Bajc, Borut
Muco, Giulia
Sannino, Francesco
Wagner, Sophie
High Energy Physics - Theory
Statistical Mechanics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
We investigate whether spontaneous symmetry breaking can persist up to arbitrarily high temperature in ultraviolet-complete quantum field theories in four spacetime dimensions. We focus on completely asymptotically free models with gauge group $\mathrm{SU}(N_{c1})\times \mathrm{SU}(N_{c2})$ and two complex scalar fields, each transforming in the fundamental representation of one gauge factor and singlet under the other. The scalar potential contains quartic self-interactions together with a negative portal coupling between the two sectors. In the Veneziano limit, this class of theories was previously shown to admit fixed-flow trajectories for which one scalar acquires a negative thermal mass at asymptotically large temperature, leading to symmetry non-restoration. Here we extend that analysis to finite numbers of colours and flavours. We derive the finite-$N$ fixed-flow equations, compute the leading $1/N$ corrections to the large-$N$ solutions, and solve the full finite-$N$ system numerically. We find explicit finite-$N$ benchmark theories for which the scalar potential remains bounded from below, the gauge sector is asymptotically free, and one scalar thermal mass stays negative at arbitrarily high temperature. This provides an explicit perturbative example of infinite heat order in a four-dimensional ultraviolet-complete quantum field theory with a finite field content.
title Infinite Heat Order in 3+1 Dimensions
topic High Energy Physics - Theory
Statistical Mechanics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.01184