QCD-Collapsed Domain Walls: QCD Phase Transition and Gravitational Wave Spectroscopy

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bai, Yang, Chen, Ting-Kuo, Korwar, Mrunal
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Bai, Yang
Chen, Ting-Kuo
Korwar, Mrunal
author_facet Bai, Yang
Chen, Ting-Kuo
Korwar, Mrunal
contents For a discrete symmetry that is anomalous under QCD, the domain walls produced in the early universe from its spontaneous breaking can naturally annihilate due to QCD instanton effects. The gravitational waves generated from wall annihilation have their amplitude and frequency determined by both the discrete symmetry breaking scale and the QCD scale. The evidence of stochastic gravitational waves at nanohertz observed by pulsar timing array experiments suggests that the discrete-symmetry-breaking scale is around 100 TeV, assuming the domain-wall explanation. The annihilation temperature is about 100 MeV, which could naturally be below the QCD phase transition temperature. We point out that the QCD phase transition within some domains with an effective large QCD $θ$ angle could be a first-order one. To derive the phase diagram in $θ$ and temperature, we adopt a phenomenological linear sigma model with three quark flavors. The domain-wall explanation for the NANOGrav, EPTA, PPTA and CPTA results hints at a first-order QCD phase transition, which predicts additional gravitational waves at higher frequencies. If the initial formation of domain walls is also a first-order process, this class of domain-wall models predicts an interesting gravitational wave spectroscopy with frequencies spanning more than ten orders of magnitude, from nanohertz to 100 Hz.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2306_17160
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle QCD-Collapsed Domain Walls: QCD Phase Transition and Gravitational Wave Spectroscopy
Bai, Yang
Chen, Ting-Kuo
Korwar, Mrunal
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
For a discrete symmetry that is anomalous under QCD, the domain walls produced in the early universe from its spontaneous breaking can naturally annihilate due to QCD instanton effects. The gravitational waves generated from wall annihilation have their amplitude and frequency determined by both the discrete symmetry breaking scale and the QCD scale. The evidence of stochastic gravitational waves at nanohertz observed by pulsar timing array experiments suggests that the discrete-symmetry-breaking scale is around 100 TeV, assuming the domain-wall explanation. The annihilation temperature is about 100 MeV, which could naturally be below the QCD phase transition temperature. We point out that the QCD phase transition within some domains with an effective large QCD $θ$ angle could be a first-order one. To derive the phase diagram in $θ$ and temperature, we adopt a phenomenological linear sigma model with three quark flavors. The domain-wall explanation for the NANOGrav, EPTA, PPTA and CPTA results hints at a first-order QCD phase transition, which predicts additional gravitational waves at higher frequencies. If the initial formation of domain walls is also a first-order process, this class of domain-wall models predicts an interesting gravitational wave spectroscopy with frequencies spanning more than ten orders of magnitude, from nanohertz to 100 Hz.
title QCD-Collapsed Domain Walls: QCD Phase Transition and Gravitational Wave Spectroscopy
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.17160