From Hubble to Bubble

From Hubble to Bubble

Blog Article

Abstract 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 here 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 color touch 7/97 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.