We investigate the properties of a stochastic gravitational wave background produced by a first-order electroweak phase transition in the regime of extreme supercooling. We study a scenario whereby the percolation temperature that signifies the completion of the transition, $T_p$, can be as low as a few MeV (nucleosynthesis temperature), while most of the true vacuum bubbles are formed much earlier at the nucleation temperature, $T_n\sim 50$ GeV. This implies that the gravitational wave spectrum is mainly produced by the collisions of large bubbles and characterised by a large amplitude and a peak frequency as low as $f \sim 10^{-9}-10^{-7}$ Hz. We show that such a scenario can occur in (but not limited to) a model based on a non-linear realisation of the electroweak gauge group, such that the Higgs vacuum configuration is altered by a cubic coupling. In order to carefully quantify the evolution of the phase transition of this model over such a wide temperature range, we go beyond the usual fast transition approximation, taking into account the expansion of the Universe as well as the behaviour of the nucleation probability at low temperatures. Our computation shows that there exists a range of parameters for which the gravitational wave spectrum lies at the edge between the exclusion limits of current pulsar timing array experiments and the detection band of the future Square Kilometre Array observatory.
In extensions of the Standard Model with no dimensionful parameters the electroweak phase transition can be delayed to temperatures of order 100 MeV. Then the chiral phase transition of QCD can proceed with 6 massless quarks. The top-quark condensate destabilizes the Higgs potential through the Yukawa interaction, triggering the electroweak transition. Based on the symmetries of massless QCD, it has been argued that the chiral phase transition is first order. We point out that the top-Higgs Yukawa interaction is nonperturbatively large at the QCD scale, and that its effect on the chiral phase …
Phase transition dynamics may play important roles in the evolution history of the early universe, such as its possible roles in electroweak baryogenesis and dark matter.We systematically discuss and clarify the important details of the phase transition dynamics during a strong first-order phase transition (SFOPT). We classify the SFOPT into four types: slight supercooling, mild supercooling, strong supercooling, and ultra supercooling. Using different characteristic temperatures, length scales and bubble wall velocities, the corresponding gravitational wave (GW) spectra are investigated in de…
Beyond the Daisy Chain: Running and the 3D EFT View of Supercooled Phase Transitions
PRISMA + Cluster of Excellence & Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University（PRISMA卓越集群与美因茨理论物理研究所，约翰内斯·古腾堡大学）；Instituto de Física Teórica UAM/CSIC and Departamento de Física Teórica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid（马德里自治大学/西班牙国家研究委员会理论物理研究所与理论物理系，马德里自治大学）；Dual CP Institute of High Energy Physics（双CP高能物理研究所）
The origins of matter and radiation in the universe lie in a Hot Big Bang. We present a number of well-motivated cosmologies in which the Big Bang occurs through a strong first order phase transition -- either at the end of inflation, after a period of kination ("Kination-Induced Big Bang"), or after a second period of vacuum-domination in the early universe ("Supercooled Big Bang"); we also propose a "Dark Big Bang" where only the dark matter in the Universe is created in a first-order phase transition much after inflation. In all of these scenarios, the resulting gravitational radiation can …
We study the scenarios where a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition (EWPT) is triggered by a light singlet scalar, which has feeble interactions to the Higgs. Since the singlet scalar is light and has weak couplings, it can decay at a macroscopic distance away from the collision point. Therefore, it can be regarded as a long-lived particles (LLP) in such scenarios. We perform the searches of the LLPs from the exotic Higgs decays, at the FASER, MAPP and CMS-Timing detectors of the 14 TeV HL-LHC, to probe the strongly first-order EWPT. In certain scenarios, we show that the LLP sear…
Nanjing Normal University（南京师范大学）；Scuola Superiore Meridionale, Università degli studi di Napoli “Federico II”（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学南方高等学院）；INFN - Sezione di Napoli（意大利国家核物理研究所那不勒斯分部）
We present a complementarity study of gravitational waves and double Higgs production in the $4b$ channel, exploring the gauge singlet scalar extension of the SM. This new physics extension serves as a simplified benchmark model that realizes a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition necessary to generate the observed baryon asymmetry in the universe. In calculating the signal-to-noise ratio of the gravitational waves, we incorporate the effect of the recently discovered significant suppression of the gravitational wave signals from sound waves for strong phase transitions, make sure…
Classically scale-invariant models are attractive not only because they may offer a solution to the long-standing gauge hierarchy problem, but also due to their role in facilitating strongly supercooled cosmic phase transitions. In this paper, we investigate the interplay between these two aspects. We do so in the context of the electroweak phase transition (EWPT) in the minimal scale-invariant theory. We find that the amount of supercooling generally decreases for increasing scalar couplings. However, the stabilization of the electroweak scale against the Planck scale requires the absence of …
Hot New Early Dark Energy bridging cosmic gaps: Supercooled phase transition reconciles (stepped) dark radiation solutions to the Hubble tension with BBN
We revisit the big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) limits on primordial magnetic fields and/or turbulent motions accounting for the decaying nature of turbulent sources between the time of generation and BBN. This leads to larger estimates for the gravitational wave (GW) signal than previously expected. We address the detection prospects through space-based interferometers (for GWs generated around the electroweak energy scale) as well as pulsar timing arrays and astrometric missions (for GWs generated around the quantum chromodynamics energy scale).
The spontaneous breaking of U(1)_B-L around the scale of grand unification can simultaneously account for hybrid inflation, leptogenesis, and neutralino dark matter, thus resolving three major puzzles of particle physics and cosmology in a single predictive framework. The B-L phase transition also results in a network of cosmic strings. If strong and electroweak interactions are unified in an SO(10) gauge group, containing U(1)_B-L as a subgroup, these strings are metastable. In this case, they produce a stochastic background of gravitational waves that evades current pulsar timing bounds, but…
Cosmological phase transitions: from particle physics to gravitational waves, semi-analytically
INFN, Sezione di Bologna（意大利国家核物理研究所博洛尼部分所）；Laboratoire de Physique de Clermont Auvergne (UMR 6533), CNRS/IN2P3, Univ. Clermont Auvergne（克莱蒙奥弗涅大学克莱蒙奥弗涅物理实验室）
Implications of tachyonic phase transition in classically scale invariant general $U(1)_{X}$ models
Institute for Academic Innovation, Hokkaido University（北海道大学学术创新研究所）；Department of Physics, Hokkaido University（北海道大学物理系）；National Institute of Technology, Fukushima College（福岛国立高等专门学校）；Czech Technical University in Prague（布拉格捷克理工大学）；Peking University（北京大学）
Uppsala University（乌普萨拉大学）；Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)（卡尔斯鲁厄理工学院）；Instituto de Física Corpuscular (IFIC), Universitat de Valéncia-CSIC（瓦伦西亚大学-西班牙国家科学研究委员会粒子物理研究所）
