QCD-Collapsed Domain Walls: QCD Phase Transition and Gravitational Wave Spectroscopy

Abstract

For a discrete symmetry that is anomalous under QCD, the domain walls produced in the early universe from its spontaneous breaking can naturally annihilate due to QCD instanton effects. The gravitational waves generated from wall annihilation have their amplitude and frequency determined by both the discrete symmetry breaking scale and the QCD scale. The evidence of stochastic gravitational waves at nanohertz observed by pulsar timing array experiments suggests that the discrete-symmetry-breaking scale is around 100 TeV, assuming the domain-wall explanation. The annihilation temperature is about 100 MeV, which could naturally be below the QCD phase transition temperature. We point out that the QCD phase transition within some domains with an effective large QCD $\theta$ angle could be a first-order one. To derive the phase diagram in $\theta$ and temperature, we adopt a phenomenological linear sigma model with three quark flavors. The domain-wall explanation for the NANOGrav, EPTA, PPTA and CPTA results hints at a first-order QCD phase transition, which predicts additional gravitational waves at higher frequencies. If the initial formation of domain walls is also a first-order process, this class of domain-wall models predicts an interesting gravitational wave spectroscopy with frequencies spanning more than ten orders of magnitude, from nanohertz to 100 Hz.

35 pages, 8 figures, matches to published version

References in corpus (63)

• TianQin: a space-borne gravitational wave detector
• The order of the quantum chromodynamics transition predicted by the standard model of particle physics
• Search for an isotropic gravitational-wave background with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• Science Case for the Einstein Telescope
• Searching for the nano-Hertz stochastic gravitational wave background with the Chinese Pulsar Timing Array Data Release I
• Cosmological Backgrounds of Gravitational Waves
• The QCD axion, precisely
• Beyond LISA: Exploring Future Gravitational Wave Missions
• Lattice determination of the critical point of QCD at finite T and μ
• The landscape of QCD axion models
• Energy Budget of Cosmological First-order Phase Transitions
• Gravitational Wave Production by Collisions: More Bubbles
• Taiji Program: Gravitational-Wave Sources
• Numerical simulations of acoustically generated gravitational waves at a first order phase transition
• CosmoTransitions: Computing Cosmological Phase Transition Temperatures and Bubble Profiles with Multiple Fields
• Theta, Time Reversal, and Temperature
• The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves
• The QCD phase transition with physical-mass, chiral quarks
• Axion Cosmology
• General Properties of the Gravitational Wave Spectrum from Phase Transitions
• On the evidence for a common-spectrum process in the search for the nanohertz gravitational-wave background with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• Axion dark matter from topological defects
• The International Pulsar Timing Array: Second data release
• The International Pulsar Timing Array
• The Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• Universal infrared scaling of gravitational wave background spectra
• On the estimation of gravitational wave spectrum from cosmic domain walls
• A review of gravitational waves from cosmic domain walls
• Chiral Symmetry Restoration at Nonzero Temperature in the SU(3) \times SU(3) Linear Sigma Model
• Time-Reversal Breaking in QCD${}_4$, Walls, and Dualities in 2+1 Dimensions
• Icosahedral (A5) Family Symmetry and the Golden Ratio Prediction for Solar Neutrino Mixing
• Studies of the motion and decay of axion walls bounded by strings
• The three-flavor chiral phase structure in hot and dense QCD matter
• (Non-)Abelian discrete anomalies
• Quark matter may not be strange
• Primordial gravitational waves in the nano-Hertz regime and PTA data -- towards solving the GW inverse problem
• Domain Walls as Dark Energy
• Primordial Black Holes from the QCD axion
• Evolution of String-Wall Networks and Axionic Domain Wall Problem
• Baryon Asymmetry, Dark Matter and Quantum Chromodynamics
• On the gravitational wave sources from the NANOGrav 12.5-yr data
• Fluctuations and the axial anomaly with three quark flavors
• Gravitational Waves from Collapsing Vacuum Domains
• Up and down quark masses and corrections to Dashen's theorem from lattice QCD and quenched QED
• Extending the velocity-dependent one-scale model for domain walls
• Axion field and the quark nugget's formation at the QCD phase transition
• Topological Defects and nano-Hz Gravitational Waves in Aligned Axion Models
• The high temperature CP-restoring phase transition at theta = pi
• Cosmological Constraints on First-Order Phase Transitions
• Catastrogenesis: DM, GWs, and PBHs from ALP string-wall networks
• Six Flavor Quark Matter
• Gravitational wave signatures from discrete flavor symmetries
• CP violation and chiral symmetry restoration in the hot linear sigma model in a strong magnetic background
• Friction on ALP domain walls and gravitational waves
• Testing clockwork axion with gravitational waves
• Primordial black hole dark matter from catastrogenesis with unstable pseudo-Goldstone bosons
• Anomalous mesonic interactions near a chiral phase transition
• Pulsar science with the CHIME telescope
• $\theta$-dependence of light nuclei and nucleosynthesis
• Classification of Abelian domain walls
• Collapsing domain walls beyond $Z_2$
• "Invisible" QCD axion rolling through the QCD phase transition
• Anomalous Discrete Flavor Symmetry and Domain Wall Problem

Cited by in corpus (23)

• The Detected Stochastic Gravitational Waves and Subsolar-Mass Primordial Black Holes
• Supercooling in Radiative Symmetry Breaking: Theory Extensions, Gravitational Wave Detection and Primordial Black Holes
• Can supercooled phase transitions explain the gravitational wave background observed by pulsar timing arrays?
• Did we hear the sound of the Universe boiling? Analysis using the full fluid velocity profiles and NANOGrav 15-year data
• Can the gravitational wave background feel wiggles in spacetime?
• Bounds on Ultralight Dark Matter from NANOGrav
• Enhancement of gravitational waves at Q-ball decay including non-linear density perturbations
• Null energy condition violation during inflation and pulsar timing array observations
• Constraints on holographic QCD phase transitions from PTA observations
• Beyond the Hellings-Downs curve: Non-Einsteinian gravitational waves in pulsar timing array correlations
• Correlations for an anisotropic polarized stochastic gravitational wave background in pulsar timing arrays
• Induced Domain Walls of QCD Axion, and Gravitational Waves
• Fast Likelihood-free Reconstruction of Gravitational Wave Backgrounds
• Strange quark matter as dark matter: 40 years later, a reappraisal
• Dark Matter Spike surrounding Supermassive Black Holes Binary and the Nanohertz Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background
• Crescendo Beyond the Horizon: More Gravitational Waves from Domain Walls Bounded by Inflated Cosmic Strings
• Non-Abelian Domain Walls and Gravitational Waves
• Exploring the viability of pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson as ultralight dark matter in a mass range relevant for strong gravity applications
• Flow-based Nonperturbative Simulation of First-order Phase Transitions
• Outer Solar System spacecraft to probe the $\mu$Hz gravitational wave frontier
• First-order CP phase transition in two-flavor QCD at $\theta =\pi$ under electromagnetic scale anomaly via a Nambu-Jona-Lasinio description
• QCD Vacuum Energy and Its Implication for Quark Nugget Stability
• Searching Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background Landscape Across Frequency Bands