Gravitational waves from deflagration bubbles in first-order phase transitions
arXiv:0804.0391 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.78.084003
Abstract
The walls of bubbles in a first-order phase transition can propagate either as detonations, with a velocity larger than the speed of sound, or deflagrations, which are subsonic. We calculate the gravitational radiation that is produced by turbulence during a phase transition which develops via deflagration bubbles. We take into account the fact that a deflagration wall is preceded by a shock front which distributes the latent heat throughout space and influences other bubbles. We show that turbulence can induce peak values of as high as . We discuss the possibility of detecting at LISA gravitational waves produced in the electroweak phase transition with wall velocities , which favor electroweak baryogenesis.
13 pages, 1 figure; calculations of section IV repeated using recent results for the GW spectrum from turbulence, comments added in all sections, references added, conclusions unchanged