Gravitational waves from phase transitions at the electroweak scale and beyond
Top Cited Papers
- 12 February 2007
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review D
- Vol. 75 (4), 043507
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.75.043507
Abstract
If there was a first-order phase transition in the early universe, there should be an associated stochastic background of gravitational waves. In this paper, we point out that the characteristic frequency of the spectrum due to phase transitions which took place in the temperature range is precisely in the window that will be probed by the second generation of space-based interferometers such as the big bang observer (BBO). Taking into account the astrophysical foreground, we determine the type of phase transitions which could be detected either at LISA, LIGO or BBO, in terms of the amount of supercooling and the duration of the phase transition that are needed. Those two quantities can be calculated for any given effective scalar potential describing the phase transition. In particular, the new models of electroweak symmetry-breaking which have been proposed in the last few years typically have a different Higgs potential from the standard model. They could lead to a gravitational wave signature in the milli-Hertz frequency, which is precisely the peak sensitivity of LISA. We also show that the signal coming from phase transitions taking place at could entirely screen the relic gravitational wave signal expected from standard inflationary models.
Keywords
This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit:
- Direct detection of the inflationary gravitational-wave backgroundPhysical Review D, 2006
- Relic backgrounds of gravitational waves from cosmic turbulencePhysical Review D, 2002
- Gravitational radiation from cosmological turbulencePhysical Review D, 2002
- End Point of the Hot Electroweak Phase TransitionPhysical Review Letters, 1999
- The universality class of the electroweak theoryNuclear Physics B, 1998
- Is There a Hot Electroweak Phase Transition at?Physical Review Letters, 1996
- Gravitational radiation from first-order phase transitionsPhysical Review D, 1994
- Gravitational radiation from colliding vacuum bubbles: Envelope approximation to many-bubble collisionsPhysical Review D, 1993
- Gravitational waves from first-order cosmological phase transitionsPhysical Review Letters, 1992
- Gravitational radiation from colliding vacuum bubblesPhysical Review D, 1992