The Supercooling Window at Weak and Strong Coupling

TL;DR

This paper investigates the conditions under which supercooled first order phase transitions occur in theories with spontaneously broken conformal symmetry, providing analytical insights into the supercooling window at both weak and strong coupling.

Contribution

It analytically characterizes the supercooling window in weakly coupled theories and discusses the challenges of doing so in strongly coupled theories with holographic duals.

Findings

Identified the supercooling window boundaries analytically in weakly coupled theories.

Mapped deformations that enlarge the supercooling window.

Discussed the limitations of characterizing the supercooling window in strongly coupled theories.

Abstract

Supercooled first order phase transitions are typical of theories where conformal symmetry is predominantly spontaneously broken. In these theories the fate of the flat scalar direction is highly sensitive to the size and the scaling dimension of the explicit breaking deformations. For a given deformation, the coupling must lie in a particular region to realize a supercooled first order phase transition. We identify the supercooling window in weakly coupled theories and derive a fully analytical understanding of its boundaries. Mapping these boundaries allows us to identify the deformations enlarging the supercooling window and to characterize their dynamics analytically. For completeness we also discuss strongly coupled conformal field theories with an holographic dual, where the complete characterization of the supercooling window is challenged by calculability issues.