Logarithmically divergent friction on ultrarelativistic bubble walls

Abstract

We calculate the friction experienced by ultrarelativistic bubble walls resulting from the $1\to 2$ light-to-heavy transition process, with finite-wall-width effects fully taken into account. In this process, the light particle is excited from the order-parameter scalar field, while the two heavy particles are excitations of a dark matter scalar field. Unlike earlier estimates suggesting a friction scaling as ${\gamma }_w^0$, where ${\gamma }_w$ represents the Lorentz factor of the wall velocity, our more precise numerical analysis reveals a logarithmic dependence of the friction on ${\gamma }_w$. We offer a numerical fit to capture this frictional pressure accurately. Our analysis verifies that the friction stemming from the $1\to 2$ light-to-heavy transition is typically much smaller than the friction from the $1\to 1$ transmission of the dark matter particles.

23 pages, 7 figures; v2: discussion on the $L_w\to 0$ limit (Sec. 4.3) added, title changed, refs updated; v3: matches the published version

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• Bubble wall dynamics from nonequilibrium quantum field theory
• Bubble Trouble: a Review on Electroweak Baryogenesis
• Entropy production at electroweak bubble walls from scalar field fluctuations
• High-frequency gravitational waves from first-order phase transitions
• Gravitational waves from the sound shell model: direct and inverse phase transitions in the early Universe