Gravitational Wave Signals in a Promising Realization of SO(10) Unification

TL;DR

This paper explores gravitational wave signals from a two-step symmetry breaking in an SO(10) grand unified model, analyzing phase transitions and potential detectability with future detectors.

Contribution

It provides an analytical calculation of the effective potential for symmetry breaking and predicts gravitational wave signals in a non-supersymmetric SO(10) GUT model.

Findings

First-order phase transition can produce detectable gravitational waves

Calculated the one-loop effective potential for symmetry breaking

Predicted gravitational wave background from primordial plasma

Abstract

We investigate gravitational wave signals in a non-supersymmetric grand unified model where the group $SO(10)$ is broken in two steps to the Standard Model gauge group. We calculate the analytical form of the one-loop effective potential responsible for the first step of symmetry breaking and show that it can lead to a first-order phase transition with gravitational wave production. We also determine the gravitational wave background produced by the primordial plasma of relativistic particles. The present experimental sensitivity is still far from the expected signals, but could be in reach of novel detector concepts.