Perfect 3-dimensional lattice actions for 4-dimensional quantum field theories at finite temperature

We propose a two-step procedure to study the order of phase transitions at finite temperature in electroweak theory and in simplified models thereof. In a first step a coarse grained free energy is computed by perturbative methods. It is obtained in the form of a 3-dimensional perfect lattice action by a block spin transformation. It has finite temperature dependent coefficients. In this way the UV-problem and the infrared problem is separated in a clean way. In the second step the effective 3-dimensional lattice theory is treated in a nonperturbative way, either by the Feynman-Bololiubov method (solution of a gap equation), by real space renormalization group methods, or by computer simulations. In this paper we outline the principles for #phi#"4-theory and scalar electrodynamics. The Balaban-Jaffe block spin transformation for the gauge field is used. It is known how to extend this transformation to the nonabelian case, but this will not be discussed here. (orig.)19 refs.SIGLEDEGerman