Curvature-induced electroweak symmetry breaking and phase transition of a Higgs-portal dark scalar field

TL;DR

This paper explores how curvature-induced phase transitions of a Higgs-portal dark scalar field can generate gravitational waves, with implications for electroweak symmetry breaking and potential detectability in future experiments.

Contribution

It analyzes the dynamics of curvature-induced phase transitions during inflation to kination, highlighting the impact on gravitational wave signals and electroweak symmetry breaking.

Findings

Kination enhances gravitational wave amplitudes.

Certain parameter regions may produce detectable gravitational waves.

High inflationary scales produce characteristic high-frequency GW spectra.

Abstract

This overview of the study arXiv:2407.18845, regarding the possibility of generating gravitational waves from a curvature-induced phase transition of a non-minimally coupled scalar dark matter field with a Higgs-portal, was showcased at the "Workshop on Standard Model and Beyond 2025" of the Corfu Summer Institute 2025. The phase transition dynamics during the transition from inflation to kination were calculated for various inflationary scales, considering both positive and negative values of the non-minimal coupling, while also examining the potential for triggering electroweak symmetry breaking. Notably, kination enhances the GW amplitudes, significantly restricting the viable parameter space. While the GW spectra follow the usual rule for high-frequencies from high inflationary scales, certain regions of the parameter space allow for a potential detection with future experiments.