Critical Higgs mass and temperature dependence of gauge Boson masses in the SU(2) gauge-higgs model

Abstract We study the effective 3-D SU(2) Gauge-Higgs model at finite temperature for Higgs-masses in the range from 60 GeV up to 100 GeV. The first order electroweak phase transition weakens with increasing Higgs-mass and terminates at a critical end-point. For Higgs-mass values larger than about m H,c = 75.4(6) GeV the thermodynamic signature of the transition is described by a crossover. Close to this Higgs-mass value we investigate the vector boson propagator in Landau gauge. The calculated W-boson screening masses are compared with predictions based on gap equations.