First-order phase transitions
- Bubbles of stable phase nucleate in metastable phase
- Bubbles then expand and collide
- Out-of-equilibrium: can facilitate baryogenesis
- Collisions produce gravitational waves
[Sketch: Anna Kormu]
LISA: "Astrophysics" signals
LISA: Stochastic background?
BSM phase transition? ⬊
[qualitative curve, sketched on]
[what BSM physics might there be?]
Particle physics model
⇓L4d
Dimensional reduction
⇓L3d
Phase transition parameters
from lattice simulations
⇓α,β,TN,vw,…
Real time cosmological simulations
⇓Ωgw(f)
Cosmological GW background
[what would we see as a result?]
Particle physics model
⇓L4d
Dimensional reduction
⇓L3d
Phase transition parameters
from lattice simulations
⇓α,β,TN,vw,…
Real time cosmological simulations
⇓Ωgw(f)
Cosmological GW background
Phase transition parameters connect particle physics and cosmology
- α, the phase transition strength (∼ latent heat)
- TN, the temperature at which bubbles nucleate
- β, the inverse phase transition duration
(∼ peak nucleation rate)
- vw, the speed at which bubbles expand
Our focus: nucleation rate
- We compute the bubble nucleation rate Γ
- Earlier work doing this on the lattice focussed on radiatively induced transitions
hep-ph/0009132; hep-lat/0103036; arXiv:2205.07238
- Current BSM phenomenological interest is in stronger transitions with tree-level barriers, like ours:
L=−12∂μφ∂μφ−V(φ)−J1φ−J2φ2,V(φ)=σφ+12m2φ2+13!gφ3+14!λφ4
Bubbles in the lab
- Another motivation: test classical (non-relativistic) nucleation theory in the laboratory:
- Hints (e.g. from 3He) that theory not totally consistent with experiment
- Lattice simulations provide a third path between nucleation theory and analogue experiments
How to compute the nucleation rate
- Use multicanonical simulations to generate order parameter histogram
- Calculate probability of critical bubble Pc relative to metastable phase
How to compute the nucleation rate
- Evolve critical bubble configurations forward and backward in a heat bath
How to compute the nucleation rate
- Compute fraction d of configurations that tunnel relative to crossings of θc
d=δtunnelNcrossings
δtunnel=1 if bubble tunnels, 0 otherwise
Starting
⬋ point
Critical bubble
Stable phase
Metastable phase
How to compute nucleation rate
- Determine (analytically) rate of change of order parameter across transition surface
(∼ set of all critical bubbles in configuration space)
⟨flux⟩=⟨|ΔθΔt|θc⟩=√8πV(θc+A2)
Then the nucleation rate is
ΓV≈Pc⟨flux⟩⟨d⟩2
(assuming that ⟨flux⟩ consists of short-range fluctuations
and d long-range fluctuations hep-lat/0103036 )
Picking a good order parameter
Main results: nucleation rate
• a→0 with Lλ3=42
⬋ Naive order parameter
• Up to 603 at aλ3=1.5
Reweighting; comparison with PT
20% discrepancy in logΓ ⇒ 10several discrepancy in Γ
Check out Riikka Seppä's poster!
Key points
- Testing nucleation theory is important for particle physics, cosmology (and lab experiments).
- Our potential (with tree level barrier) shows a significant discrepancy with analytical nucleation theory.
- Need a good [quasi]order parameter to suppress bulk fluctuations in multicanonical simulations.
Testing nucleation calculations for strong phase transitions Oliver Gould -
University of Nottingham Anna Kormu and David J. Weir [they/he] -
University of Helsinki This talk: saoghal.net/slides/lattice2024 Lattice 2024, 29 July 2024