Growth of bubbles in cosmological phase transitions

Abstract

We study how bubbles grow after the initial nucleation event in generic first-order cosmological phase transitions characterized by the values of the latent heat L, interface tension a, and correlation length 6, and driven by a scalar order parameter d. Equations coupling b(t,x) and the fluid variables vit,x), T(t,x) and depending on a dissipative constant l-are derived and solved numerically in the ( 1 + 1)-dimensional case starting from a slightly deformed critical bubble configuration #(O,x). The parameters L, u , & corresponding to QCD and electroweak phase transitions are chosen and the whole history of the bubble with the formation of combustion and shock fronts is computed as a function of I?.Both deflagrations and detonations can appear depending on the values of the parameters. Reheating due to collisions of bubbles is also computed. PACS number(s1: 98.80.Cq,

Evaporation of quark drops during the cosmological quark-hadron transition

“…At present it is not completely clear whether this transition would have been rst order or of a higher order 1], although recent lattice calculations favour it being rst order for the realistic case of two degenerate light u and d quarks and a heavier s quark (of up to 400 MeV) 2]. The interesting consequences that a rst order transition could have produced for the early history of the universe 3,4] provide the motivation for studying this case.…”

Formation and collapse of false vacuum bubbles in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

“…The motion of the interface will be dissipative at this stage due to its interaction with partons. Typical velocity of the interface, therefore, will be less than the speed of sound [29,27,28]. However, as all (or most) of the partons hadronize, the interface will continue to move inward due to negative pressure of the metastable vacuum.…”

“…We mention that the forms of effective potential such as the one used in ref. [27] do not capture this physics of deconfinement-confinement phase transition. For example, in ref.…”

“…As this is the stage when hadrons start forming, interface starts moving inwards. Initial motion of the interface is highly dissipative [29,27], as long as it traverses the region which is filled with the partons, i.e. a thickness of ∆r ≃ 2R A .…”

“…For example, in ref. [27], an effective potential has been used with a T φ 3 term (with φ being the order parameter for D-C phase transition) to model the first order nature of the transition. Thus in this model, barrier between the deconfining vacuum and the confining vacuum disappears below certain temperature, which is not in the spirit of the physics of bag model.…”