Effective actions and bubble nucleation from holography

Abstract

We discuss the computation of the quantum effective action of strongly interacting field theories using holographic duality, and its use to determine quasi-equilibrium parameters of first order phase transitions relevant for gravitational wave production. A particularly simple holographic model is introduced, containing only the metric and a free massive scalar field. Despite the simplicity, the model contains a rich phase diagram, including first order phase transitions at non-zero temperature, due to various multi-trace deformations. We obtain the leading terms in the effective action from homogeneous black brane solutions in the gravity dual, and linearised perturbations around them. We then employ the effective action to construct bubble and domain wall solutions in the field theory side and study their properties. In particular, we show how the scaling of the effective action with the effective number of degrees of freedom of the quantum field theory determines the corresponding scaling of gravitational wave parameters.

40 pages, 17 figures

References in corpus (7)

• Signals of the QCD phase transition in core-collapse supernovae
• Holographic Nuclear Physics
• Droplets in the cold and dense linear sigma model with quarks
• Dark Confinement and Chiral Phase Transitions: Gravitational Waves vs Matter Representations
• Gravitational Waves at Strong Coupling from an Effective Action
• Holographic quantum criticality from multi-trace deformations
• A simple description of holographic domain walls in confining theories -- extended hydrodynamics

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Echo of the Dark: gravitational waves from dark SU(3) Yang-Mills theory
• Holographic approach to compact stars and their binary mergers
• Holographic Bubbles with Jecco: Expanding, Collapsing and Critical
• Gravitational Waves at Strong Coupling from an Effective Action
• A perfect fluid hydrodynamic picture of domain wall velocities at strong coupling
• Droplet collapse during strongly supercooled transitions
• Dynamical stability from quasi normal modes in 2nd, 1st and 0th order holographic superfluid phase transitions
• Thermal Emission of Gravitational Waves from Weak to Strong Coupling