From Hubble to Bubble
The detection of a stochastic Gravitational Wave (GW) background sourced by a cosmological phase transition would allow us to see the early Universe from a completely new perspective, illuminating aspects of Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics and inflationary cosmology. In this study, we invest...
| Autores: | , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2023 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) |
| Repositorio: | Docta Complutense |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/102209 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/102209 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | 524.8 Phase Transitions in the Early Universe Cosmological models Cosmology of Theories BSM Astrofísica Partículas 2101 Cosmología y Cosmogonía |
| Sumario: | The detection of a stochastic Gravitational Wave (GW) background sourced by a cosmological phase transition would allow us to see the early Universe from a completely new perspective, illuminating aspects of Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics and inflationary cosmology. In this study, we investigate whether the evolution of the scalar potential of a minimal SM extension after inflation can lead to a strong first-order phase transition. In particular, we focus on a BSM spectator scalar field that is non-minimally coupled to gravity and has a dynamical double-well potential. As inflation ends, the potential barrier diminishes due to the evolution of the curvature scalar. Therefore, a phase transition can proceed through the nucleation of true-vacuum bubbles that collide as they fill the Universe and produce GWs. We consider high and low scales of inflation, while also taking into account a kination period between inflation and the onset of radiation domination. With this prescription, we showcase a proof-of-concept study of a new triggering mechanism for BSM phase transitions in the early Universe, whose GW signatures could potentially be probed with future detectors. |
|---|