Detecting gravitational waves from cosmological phase transitions with LISA: an update

• Published in: Journal of cosmology and astroparticle physics Vol. 2020; no. 3; p. 24
• Main Authors: Caprini, Chiara, Chala, Mikael, Dorsch, Glauber C., Hindmarsh, Mark, Huber, Stephan J., Konstandin, Thomas, Kozaczuk, Jonathan, Nardini, Germano, No, Jose Miguel, Rummukainen, Kari, Schwaller, Pedro, Servant, Geraldine, Tranberg, Anders, Weir, David J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 01.03.2020; Institute of Physics (IOP)
• Subjects: Astronomy & Astrophysics; ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; Astrophysics; Computer simulation; Gravitational waves; Gravity waves; High Energy Physics - Phenomenology; Parameters; Particle physics; Phase transitions; Physics; Radiation; Sound waves; gravitational radiation: emission; dilaton; energy: density; new physics; numerical calculations; LISA; bubble: nucleation; critical phenomena; gravitational radiation: direct detection; gravitational radiation detector; effective field theory; standard model; gravitational radiation; perturbation theory; Higgs model; gravitational radiation: power spectrum; wave: acoustic; dark matter
• ISSN: 1475-7516; 1475-7508; 1475-7516
• DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2020/03/024

We investigate the potential for observing gravitational waves from cosmological phase transitions with LISA in light of recent theoretical and experimental developments. Our analysis is based on current state-of-the-art simulations of sound waves in the cosmic fluid after the phase transition completes. We discuss the various sources of gravitational radiation, the underlying parameters describing the phase transition and a variety of viable particle physics models in this context, clarifying common misconceptions that appear in the literature and identifying open questions requiring future study. We also present a web-based tool, PTPlot, that allows users to obtain up-to-date detection prospects for a given set of phase transition parameters at LISA.