Gravity waves from the non-renormalizable Electroweak Vacua phase transition

TL;DR

This paper analyzes gravitational wave production during a second-order electroweak phase transition caused by non-renormalizable operators, predicting detectable signals for LISA and LIGO based on parameter ranges.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of gravitational waves from electroweak vacua phase transitions influenced by higher-dimensional operators, linking particle physics modifications to observable cosmological signals.

Findings

Gravitational wave amplitude estimated at $ imes 10^{-11}$ for LISA frequency range.

Amplitude estimated at $ imes 10^{-25}$ for LIGO frequency range.

Detection prospects depend on specific parameter ranges of the phase transition.

Abstract

It is currently believed that the Standard Model is an effective low energy theory which in principle may contain higher dimensional non-renormalizable operators. These operators may modify the standard model Higgs potential in many ways, one of which being the appearance of a second vacuum. For a wide range of parameters, this new vacuum becomes the true vacuum. It is then assumed that our universe is currently sitting in the false vacuum. Thus the usual second-order electroweak phase transition at early times will be followed by a second, first-order phase transition. In cosmology, a first-order phase transition is associated with the production of gravity waves. In this paper we present an analysis of the production of gravitational waves during such a second electroweak phase transition. We find that, for one certain range of parameters, the stochastic background of gravitational waves generated by bubble nucleation and collision have an amplitude which is estimated to be of order $\Omega_{GW}h^2\sim10^{-11}$ at $f=3\times 10^{-4}$Hz, which is within reach of the planned sensitivity of LISA. For another range of parameters, we find that the amplitude is estimated o be of order $\Omega_{GW}h^2\sim10^{-25}$ around $f=10^3$Hz, which is within reach of LIGO. Hence, it is possible to detect gravity waves from such a phase transition at two different detectors, with completely different amplitude and frequency ranges.