Building a Better Beta: Nucleation and Timescales in Cosmological Phase Transitions

arXiv:2608.30115 · hep-ph, astro-ph.CO · Submitted 2026-08-31 · Read on arXiv

hep-ph, astro-ph.CO

Submitted: 2026-08-31

Updated: 2026-10-05

Comments: 28 pages, 6 figures

License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/

Terminology

• Phase Transitions — 24× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Benchmark — 20× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Standard Model — 3× in this paper
• Degeneracy — 2× in this paper · explained in 3 episodes
• Fine-Tuning — 2× in this paper · explained in 5 episodes
• Reheating — 2× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Symmetry Breaking — 2× in this paper · explained in 3 episodes
• Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background (SGWB) — 1× in this paper · explained in 3 episodes
• Topological Defects — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Trace — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes

Sources

• TianQin: a space-borne gravitational wave detector
• Gravitational Waves From a Dark (Twin) Phase Transition
• Gravitational waves from bubble collisions: analytic derivation
• Gravitational waves from bubble dynamics: Beyond the Envelope
• Gravitational waves from the sound of a first order phase transition
• Numerical simulations of acoustically generated gravitational waves at a first order phase transition
• Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
• Shape of the acoustic gravitational wave power spectrum from a first order phase transition
• Sound shell model for acoustic gravitational wave production at a first-order phase transition in the early Universe
• Gravitational waves from first order cosmological phase transitions in the Sound Shell Model
• The stochastic gravitational wave background from turbulence and magnetic fields generated by a first-order phase transition
• Characterization of the gravitational wave spectrum from sound waves within the sound shell model
• Detonations and deflagrations in cosmological phase transitions
• Spherical and non-spherical bubbles in cosmological phase transitions
• Hydrodynamic obstruction to bubble expansion
• Energy Budget of Cosmological First-order Phase Transitions
• Analytic approach to the motion of cosmological phase transition fronts
• Gravitational waves from a very strong electroweak phase transition
• Hydrodynamics of ultra-relativistic bubble walls
• Model-independent energy budget of cosmological first-order phase transitions

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