Prediction for Maximum Supercooling in SU(N) Confinement Transition

TL;DR

This paper investigates the maximum supercooling possible in SU(N) Yang-Mills theories during confinement transitions, revealing a small coefficient's origin and its implications for phase transition dynamics and gravitational wave signals.

Contribution

It provides evidence linking the small coefficient in bounce action to deconfined phase instability and predicts the maximum supercooling, offering testable lattice predictions.

Findings

Small coefficient likely from deconfined phase instability

Maximum supercooling predicted to be a few percent

Potential suppression of gravitational wave signals

Abstract

The thermal confinement phase transition (PT) in $SU(N)$ Yang-Mills theory is first-order for $N\geq 3$, with bounce action scaling as $N^2$. Remarkably, lattice data for the action include a small coefficient whose presence likely strongly alters the PT dynamics. We give evidence, utilizing insights from softly-broken SUSY YM models, that the small coefficient originates from a deconfined phase instability just below the critical temperature. We predict the maximum achievable supercooling in $SU(N)$ theories to be a few percent, which can be tested on the lattice. We briefly discuss the potentially significant suppression of the associated cosmological gravitational wave signals.