Z(3) Metastable Bubbles and Chiral Dynamics Across a Dark-QCD Deconfinement Transition
Abstract
We present a self-contained theoretical analysis of a dark-QCD chiral transition in which the Polyakov-loop sector retains an explicit structure and couples consistently to the chiral order parameter.Working within a coupled chiral--Polyakov effective theory, we map the homogeneous vacuum landscape and identify a metastability window bounded by spinodal loss of stability.We then construct domain-wall solutions including chiral backreaction, extracting temperature-dependent wall profiles and surface tension.Finally, we connect homogeneous metastability and wall microphysics to thermal bubble nucleation by evaluating the critical radius and the nucleation exponent in the thin-wall regime, providing a compact set of reproducible diagnostics for the decay of the metastable phase.Our results establish a coherent pipeline from vacuum structure to nonperturbative interfaces and nucleation barriers, suitable for systematic extensions to full multi-field bounce calculations and dark-sector cosmological applications.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.15342,
title = {Z(3) Metastable Bubbles and Chiral Dynamics Across a Dark-QCD Deconfinement Transition},
author = {Jingxu Wu and Chenjia Li and Jie Shi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.15342},
year = {2026}
}