The sphaleron rate: Bodeker's leading log

Bodeker has recently shown that the high temperature sphaleron rate, which measures baryon number violation in the hot standard model, receives logarithmic corrections to its leading parametric behavior; Gamma = kappa'[log(m(D)/g(2)T) + O(1)](g(2)T(2)/m(D)(2))alpha(W)(5)T(4). After discussing the physical origin of these corrections, I compute the leading log coefficient numerically: kappa' = 10.8 +/- 0.7. The log is fairly small relative to the O(1) correction; so non-logarithmic contributions dominate at realistic values of the coupling. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.