Probing early Universe supercooled phase transitions with gravitational wave data

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevd.107.023511
• Publication Date: 2023-01-05T16:22:53Z
• Authors: Charles Badger; Bartosz Fornal; Katarina Martinovic; Alba Romero; Kevin Turbang; Huai-Ke Guo; Alberto Mariotti; Mairi Sakellariadou; Alexander Sevrin; Feng-Wei Yang; Yue Zhao
• Keywords: High Energy Physics - Theory; Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); Physics; FOS: Physical sciences; General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc); 530; 01 natural sciences; General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology; 620; High Energy Physics - Phenomenology; High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph); High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th); 0103 physical sciences; Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

We investigate the reach of the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA detectors in the search for signatures of first-order phase transitions in the early Universe. Utilising data from the first three observing runs, we derive constraints on the parameters of the underlying gravitational-wave background, focusing on transitions characterised by strong supercooling. As an application of our analysis, we determine bounds on the parameter space of two representative particle physics models. We also comment on the expected reach of third-generation detectors in probing supercooled phase transitions.<br/>10 pages, 7 figures<br/>