# Gravitational waves from dark first order phase transitions and dark photons

## TL;DR

This paper explores how a dark photon model with a first order phase transition in the early universe can produce gravitational waves, offering multiple experimental avenues for detection and parameter constraints.

## Contribution

It introduces a dark photon model with a scalar singlet that induces a first order phase transition, linking gravitational wave signals to dark matter phenomenology.

## Key findings

- Gravitational wave signals can constrain dark photon parameters.
- The model predicts detectable signals for future interferometers.
- Cross-disciplinary experimental strategies are highly motivated.

## Abstract

Cold Dark Matter particles may interact with ordinary particles through a dark photon, which acquires a mass thanks to a spontaneous symmetry breaking mechanism. We discuss a dark photon model in which the scalar singlet associated to the spontaneous symmetry breaking has an effective potential that induces a first order phase transition in the early Universe. Such a scenario provides a rich phenomenology for electron-positron colliders and gravitational waves interferometers, and may be tested in several different channels. The hidden first order phase transition implies the emission of gravitational waves signals, which may constrain the dark photon's space of parameters. Compared limits from electron-positron colliders, astrophysics, cosmology and future gravitational waves interferometers such as eLISA, U-DECIGO and BBO are discussed. This highly motivates a {\it cross-checking strategy} of data arising from experiments dedicated to gravitational waves, meson factories, the International Linear Collider (ILC), the Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) and other underground direct detection experiments of cold dark matter candidates.