First-order cosmological phase transitions in the radiation dominated era

Abstract

We consider first-order phase transitions of the Universe in the radiation-dominated era. We argue that in general the velocity of interfaces is non-relativistic due to the interaction with the plasma and the release of latent heat. We study the general evolution of such slow phase transitions, which comprise essentially a short reheating stage and a longer phase equilibrium stage. We perform a completely analytical description of both stages. Some rough approximations are needed for the first stage, due to the non-trivial relations between the quantities that determine the variation of temperature with time. The second stage, instead, is considerably simplified by the fact that it develops at a constant temperature, close to the critical one. Indeed, in this case the equations can be solved exactly, including back-reaction on the expansion of the Universe. This treatment also applies to phase transitions mediated by impurities. We also investigate the relations between the different parameters that govern the characteristics of the phase transition and its cosmological consequences, and discuss the dependence of these parameters with the particle content of the theory.

38 pages, 3 figures; v2: Minor changes, references added; v3: several typos corrected

References in corpus (5)

• Lattice determination of the critical point of QCD at finite T and μ
• A new method to study lattice QCD at finite temperature and chemical potential
• Supersymmetric CP-violating Currents and Electroweak Baryogenesis
• Effect of pre-existing baryon inhomogeneities on the dynamics of quark-hadron transition
• Defect Formation Rates in Cosmological First-Order Phase Transitions

Cited by in corpus (25)

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• Supercool subtleties of cosmological phase transitions
• Scalar Representations in the Light of Electroweak Phase Transition and Cold Dark Matter Phenomenology
• Hydrodynamics of phase transition fronts and the speed of sound in the plasma
• Gravitational waves from a very strong electroweak phase transition
• Detonations and deflagrations in cosmological phase transitions
• Supercooling and phase coexistence in cosmological phase transitions
• Spherical and non-spherical bubbles in cosmological phase transitions
• Gravitational waves from deflagration bubbles in first-order phase transitions
• Friction forces on phase transition fronts
• Generation of baryon inhomogeneities in the electroweak phase transition
• Stability of cosmological deflagration fronts
• Stability of cosmological detonation fronts
• Secluded Dark Matter Coupled to a Hidden CFT
• Lower bound on the electroweak wall velocity from hydrodynamic instability
• Baryogenesis within the two-Higgs-doublet model in the Electroweak scale
• Analytic approach to the motion of cosmological phase transition fronts
• Bubble nucleation and growth in slow cosmological phase transitions
• Dilution of dark matter relic density in singlet extension models
• Dark energy from coexistence of phases
• Bubble wall correlations in cosmological phase transitions