Electroweak scale

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In particle physics, the electroweak scale, also known as the Fermi scale, is the energy scale around 246 GeV, a typical energy of processes described by the electroweak theory. The particular number 246 GeV is taken to be the vacuum expectation value ${\displaystyle v=(G_{F}{\sqrt {2}})^{-1/2}}$ of the Higgs field (where ${\displaystyle G_{F}}$ is the Fermi coupling constant). In some cases the term electroweak scale is used to refer to the temperature of electroweak symmetry breaking, 159.5±1.5 GeV^[1] . In other cases, the term is used more loosely to refer to energies in a broad range around 10² - 10³ GeV. This is within reach of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is designed for about 10⁴ GeV in proton–proton collisions.

Interactions may have been above this scale during the electroweak epoch. In the unextended Standard Model, the transition from the electroweak epoch was not a first or a second order phase transition but a continuous crossover, preventing any baryogenesis.^[2] However many extensions to the standard model including supersymmetry and the inert double model have a first order electroweak phase transition (but still lack additional CP violation).