English

Inflationary electroweak/particle phase transitions and new classical gravitational waves on CMB

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2019-02-27 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

Particle phase transitions in the early universe including electroweak and grand unification ones are well-studied subjects. We point out that there are new possible particle phase transitions around inflation. Those new inflationary particle phase transitions, if of the first order, may yield low-frequency gravitational waves (GWs) due to bubble dynamics, leaving imprints on the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In contrast to the nearly scale-invariant primordial GWs caused by vacuum fluctuation, these bubble-generated GWs are classical and have scale dependent B-mode spectra. If decoupled from inflaton, the electroweak phase transition during inflation may serve as a mirror image of the one after reheating where the baryon asymmetry could be generated via electroweak baryogenesis (EWBG). The second new electroweak phase transition may also be the source for EWBG.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1612.09416,
  title  = {Inflationary electroweak/particle phase transitions and new classical gravitational waves on CMB},
  author = {Sichun Sun},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.09416},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

6 pages, 4 figures, prepared for the proceeding of the 2nd LeCosPA Symposium "Everything About Gravity", based on arxiv:1512.07538