Universal gravitational-wave signatures from heavy new physics in the electroweak sector

Abstract

We calculate the gravitational-wave spectra produced by the electroweak phase transition with TeV-scale Beyond-Standard-Model physics in the early universe. Our study captures the effect of quantum and thermal fluctuations within a non-perturbative framework. We discover a universal relation between the mean bubble separation and the strength parameter of the phase transition, which holds for a wide range of new-physics contributions. The ramifications of this result are three-fold: first, they constrain the gravitational-wave spectra resulting from heavy (TeV-scale) new physics. Second, they contribute to distinguishing heavy from light new physics directly from the gravitational-wave signature. Third, they suggest that a concerted effort of gravitational-wave observations together with collider experiments could be required to distinguish between different models of heavy new physics.

Dark confinement and chiral phase transitions: gravitational waves vs matter representations

“…see also [39]. We see that β stems from the competition between latent heat L and surface tension σ.…”

“…A first-order phase transition in the early universe generates a GW signal that might be detectable by future observations [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40], for recent reviews see, e.g., [41,42]. This offers unprecedented detection possibilities for dark sectors that are otherwise (almost) decoupled from the visible SM sector.…”

Model-independent features of gravitational waves from bubble collisions

“…To this lowest order, we take the zeroth order in the limits of the integrals in Eq. (38). In this limit, the integration over the nucleation time only affects the factor R4 , and gives a factor I 4 ( t + 2 ).…”

Dark Confinement and Chiral Phase Transitions: Gravitational Waves vs Matter Representations

“…see also [143]. We see that β stems from the competition between latent heat L and surface tension σ.…”