Particle Physics and Gravitational Waves as complementary windows on the Universe

TL;DR

This paper discusses how gravitational waves and particle physics together offer complementary insights into the Universe's structure, early universe phase transitions, and dark matter, enhancing our understanding beyond current methods.

Contribution

It explores the synergies between gravitational wave observations and particle physics experiments, highlighting their combined potential to probe fundamental physics and the early Universe.

Findings

Gravitational waves can reveal properties of dense quark matter and dark matter scenarios.

Stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds can indicate early Universe phase transitions.

Next-generation gravitational wave detectors can access physics beyond collider energies.

Abstract

Particle physics and gravitational waves provide complementary probes of the deep structure of the Universe. Gravitational waves from the mergers of neutron stars and black holes are sensitive to the structure of dense quark matter and to different dark matter scenarios. Measurements of stochastic gravitational waves backgrounds can teach us about possible first order phase transitions in the early Universe, including providing sensitivity to the TeV scale which is of key interest to future particle collider experiments. Gravitational waves measurements will also give new probes of the evolution and expansion of the Universe, complementary to measurements with electromagnetic radiation. This Perspectives article explores the physics synergies between the science opportunities provided by next generation gravitational waves measurements and particle physics experiments. Gravitational waves can also probe deep into the early Universe reaching physics much above possible collider energies if the signals can be detected.