This paper investigates the importance of radiative corrections for first-order phase transitions, with particular focus on the bubble-nucleation rate. All calculations are done with a strict power-counting, and observables are consistently calculated at every order. This ensures that physical quantities are gauge and renormalization-scale invariant. Furthermore, to avoid large logarithms at high-temperatures, an effective three-dimensional theory is used. This effective theory automatically incorporates higher-order thermal masses. The results of this paper indicate that sub-leading corrections to the rate can be large. This is partly because radiative corrections are enhanced for large bubbles. To illustrate the calculations, three models are considered: a real-scalar model, a radiative-barrier model, and a model with an effective dimension $6$ operator. Relevant observables are calculated for each model, and the reliability of perturbation theory is discussed.
This paper investigates the importance of radiative corrections for first-order phase transitions. While it is known how to incorporate higher-order corrections to the rate, a detailed convergence analysis has not been performed. This paper performs such an analysis, and the results indicate that radiative corrections can be large while retaining perturbativity. To illustrate the calculations, three representative models are considered. Relevant observables are calculated for each model, and the reliability of perturbation theory is discussed.