English

Bubble wall dynamics from nonequilibrium quantum field theory

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2025-08-14 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We derive the coupled dynamics between the bubble wall and the plasma from first principles using nonequilibrium quantum field theory. The commonly used equation of motion of the bubble wall in the kinetic approach is shown to be incomplete. In the language of the two-particle-irreducible effective action, the conventional equation misses higher-loop terms generated by the condensate-particle type vertices (e.g.,~φϕχ2\varphi\phi\chi^2, where φ\varphi is the background field describing the bubble wall, ϕ\phi the corresponding particle excitation and χ\chi another particle species in the plasma). From the missing terms, we identify an additional dissipative friction which is contributed by particle production processes from the condensate-particle type vertices. We also show how other transmission processes beyond the 1-to-1 elementary transmission studied in the literature for ultrarelativistic bubble walls, e.g., 1-to-1 mixing and 1-to-2 transition radiation, can be understood from the kinetic approach.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2504.13725,
  title  = {Bubble wall dynamics from nonequilibrium quantum field theory},
  author = {Wen-Yuan Ai and Matthias Carosi and Bjorn Garbrecht and Carlos Tamarit and Miguel Vanvlasselaer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.13725},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

63 pages, 6 figures; v2: refs updated, matches the published version

R2 v1 2026-06-28T23:03:20.735Z