Bubble Expansion and the Viability of Singlet-Driven Electroweak Baryogenesis

TL;DR

This paper investigates bubble wall velocities during electroweak phase transitions with a singlet scalar, finding that velocities are often large but can be subsonic, impacting baryogenesis viability and gravitational wave predictions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed calculation of bubble wall velocities in singlet-extended models, including hydrodynamic effects, and explores implications for electroweak baryogenesis and cosmological signals.

Findings

Wall velocities are typically above 0.2 but can be subsonic.

Strong phase transitions may eliminate non-local baryogenesis.

Results inform baryon asymmetry calculations and gravitational wave spectra.

Abstract

The standard picture of electroweak baryogenesis requires slowly expanding bubbles. This can be difficult to achieve if the vacuum expectation value of a gauge singlet scalar field changes appreciably during the electroweak phase transition. It is important to determine the bubble wall velocity in this case, since the predicted baryon asymmetry can depend sensitively on its value. Here, this calculation is discussed and illustrated in the real singlet extension of the Standard Model. The friction on the bubble wall is computed using a kinetic theory approach and including hydrodynamic effects. Wall velocities are found to be rather large ($v_w \gtrsim 0.2$) but compatible with electroweak baryogenesis in some portions of the parameter space. If the phase transition is strong enough, however, a subsonic solution may not exist, precluding non-local electroweak baryogenesis altogether. The results presented here can be used in calculating the baryon asymmetry in various singlet-driven scenarios, as well as other features related to cosmological phase transitions in the early Universe, such as the resulting spectrum of gravitational radiation.