Lattice study of the critical bubble in $\mathrm{SU(8)}$ deconfinement transition

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Main Authors: Rummukainen, Kari, Seppä, Riikka, Weir, David J.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Rummukainen, Kari
Seppä, Riikka
Weir, David J.
author_facet Rummukainen, Kari
Seppä, Riikka
Weir, David J.
contents Strongly coupled theories are of phenomenological interest, for example as dark matter candidates. Theories that can undergo first order thermal phase transitions are particularly appealing as potential sources of a stochastic gravitational wave background. Determining the expected gravitational wave signal from a first order phase transition requires accurate information on the bubble nucleation rate, but thus far for strongly coupled models these have relied on semiclassical methods. As a first step towards determining the nucleation rate, in this paper we study the confinement-deconfinement phase transition in a 4D SU(8) pure gauge model, using multicanonical Monte Carlo. Resolving the critical bubble for the first time in a pure Yang-Mills model, we determine the critical bubble probability and compare it to results from thin wall calculations. We also compare the effectiveness of different lattice pseudo-order parameters at resolving the condensation transition between the metastable phase and critical bubble branch, and point out the choice of order parameter is crucial to accurately resolve the critical configurations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_22088
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Lattice study of the critical bubble in $\mathrm{SU(8)}$ deconfinement transition
Rummukainen, Kari
Seppä, Riikka
Weir, David J.
High Energy Physics - Lattice
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Strongly coupled theories are of phenomenological interest, for example as dark matter candidates. Theories that can undergo first order thermal phase transitions are particularly appealing as potential sources of a stochastic gravitational wave background. Determining the expected gravitational wave signal from a first order phase transition requires accurate information on the bubble nucleation rate, but thus far for strongly coupled models these have relied on semiclassical methods. As a first step towards determining the nucleation rate, in this paper we study the confinement-deconfinement phase transition in a 4D SU(8) pure gauge model, using multicanonical Monte Carlo. Resolving the critical bubble for the first time in a pure Yang-Mills model, we determine the critical bubble probability and compare it to results from thin wall calculations. We also compare the effectiveness of different lattice pseudo-order parameters at resolving the condensation transition between the metastable phase and critical bubble branch, and point out the choice of order parameter is crucial to accurately resolve the critical configurations.
title Lattice study of the critical bubble in $\mathrm{SU(8)}$ deconfinement transition
topic High Energy Physics - Lattice
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.22088