Cosmological phase transitions: from perturbative particle physics to gravitational waves

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Athron, Peter, Balázs, Csaba, Fowlie, Andrew, Morris, Lachlan, Wu, Lei
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2023
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866929216633700352
author Athron, Peter
Balázs, Csaba
Fowlie, Andrew
Morris, Lachlan
Wu, Lei
author_facet Athron, Peter
Balázs, Csaba
Fowlie, Andrew
Morris, Lachlan
Wu, Lei
contents Gravitational waves (GWs) were recently detected for the first time. This revolutionary discovery opens a new way of learning about particle physics through GWs from first-order phase transitions (FOPTs) in the early Universe. FOPTs could occur when new fundamental symmetries are spontaneously broken down to the Standard Model and are a vital ingredient in solutions of the matter anti-matter asymmetry problem. The purpose of our work is to review the path from a particle physics model to GWs, which contains many specialized parts, so here we provide a timely review of all the required steps, including: (i) building a finite-temperature effective potential in a particle physics model and checking for FOPTs; (ii) computing transition rates; (iii) analyzing the dynamics of bubbles of true vacuum expanding in a thermal plasma; (iv) characterizing a transition using thermal parameters; and, finally, (v) making predictions for GW spectra using the latest simulations and theoretical results and considering the detectability of predicted spectra at future GW detectors. For each step we emphasize the subtleties, advantages and drawbacks of different methods, discuss open questions and review the state-of-art approaches available in the literature. This provides everything a particle physicist needs to begin exploring GW phenomenology.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2305_02357
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Cosmological phase transitions: from perturbative particle physics to gravitational waves
Athron, Peter
Balázs, Csaba
Fowlie, Andrew
Morris, Lachlan
Wu, Lei
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Gravitational waves (GWs) were recently detected for the first time. This revolutionary discovery opens a new way of learning about particle physics through GWs from first-order phase transitions (FOPTs) in the early Universe. FOPTs could occur when new fundamental symmetries are spontaneously broken down to the Standard Model and are a vital ingredient in solutions of the matter anti-matter asymmetry problem. The purpose of our work is to review the path from a particle physics model to GWs, which contains many specialized parts, so here we provide a timely review of all the required steps, including: (i) building a finite-temperature effective potential in a particle physics model and checking for FOPTs; (ii) computing transition rates; (iii) analyzing the dynamics of bubbles of true vacuum expanding in a thermal plasma; (iv) characterizing a transition using thermal parameters; and, finally, (v) making predictions for GW spectra using the latest simulations and theoretical results and considering the detectability of predicted spectra at future GW detectors. For each step we emphasize the subtleties, advantages and drawbacks of different methods, discuss open questions and review the state-of-art approaches available in the literature. This provides everything a particle physicist needs to begin exploring GW phenomenology.
title Cosmological phase transitions: from perturbative particle physics to gravitational waves
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02357