Avoided deconfinement in Randall-Sundrum models

Abstract

We study first order phase transitions in Randall-Sundrum models in the early universe dual to confinement in large-N gauge theories. The transition rate to the confined phase is suppressed by a factor exp(−N2), and may not complete for N » 1, instead leading to an eternally inflating phase. To avoid this fate, the resulting constraint on N makes the RS effective field theory only marginally under control. We present a mechanism where the IR brane remains stabilized at very high temperature, so that the theory stays in the confined phase at all times after inflation and reheating. We call this mechanism avoided deconfinement. The mechanism involves adding new scalar fields on the IR brane which provide a stablilizing contribution to the radion potential at finite temperature, in a spirit similar to Weinberg’s symmetry non-restoration mechanism. Avoided deconfinement allows for a viable cosmology for theories with parametrically large N. Early universe cosmological phenomena such as WIMP freeze-out, axion abundance, baryogenesis, phase transitions, and gravitational wave signatures are qualitatively modified.

Electroweak symmetry non-restoration from dark matter

“…However, if the Higgs potential is appropriately modified (or some other source of electroweak symmetry breaking is added) then the electroweak symmetry can remain unbroken to higher temperatures. The general concept of symmetry non-restoration (SNR) was first explored by Weinberg [1] and then expanded upon in [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Recently, scenarios of SNR for the electroweak sector, and the associated phenomenological observables, have become a topic of investigation [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”

Forbidden conformal dark matter at a GeV

“…The phase transition proceeds via nucleation of bubbles of the IR brane. The conformal phase transition in holographic settings has been extensively studied in the literature [91,92,[100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114], so here we just summarize the essential aspects.…”

Consequences of a stabilizing field’s self-interactions for RS cosmology

“…Cosmological aspects of RS models have been studied both in the minimal scenario [2], and with interesting variations [4,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] that were aimed towards addressing the issues…”