Phase Structure and Gravitational-Wave Phenomenology of a Thermal First-Order Phase Transition
Abstract
We investigate the phase structure and gravitational-wave (GW) phenomenology of a cosmological first-order phase transition described by the finite-temperature effective potential V(ϕ,T)=D(T2−T02)ϕ2−ETϕ3+λϕ4/4. We derive the critical temperature and the broken-phase order parameter and identify the dimensionless combination E2/(Dλ) that controls the critical-temperature shift. We then construct a dense numerical atlas containing 30 000 parameter points and map the resulting transition parameters onto the characteristic GW frequency and peak amplitude. The scan resolves the multidimensional correlations among T*, α, β/H*, vw, fpeak and ΩGWpeakh2. The present analysis is phenomenological: T* is defined by the prescription T*=0.95Tc, while β/H* and vw are treated as scan inputs. Consequently, the resulting GW signals are not interpreted as first-principles predictions. We identify the additional ingredients required for a predictive calculation, including the thermal bounce action, nucleation and percolation temperatures, the transition duration and a microscopic treatment of bubble-wall friction. The resulting framework provides a systematic numerical characterization of the connection between the phase structure of the finite-temperature potential and the corresponding phenomenological GW parameter space.
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BibTeX
@misc{ghosh2026phase,
title = {{Phase Structure and Gravitational-Wave Phenomenology of a Thermal First-Order Phase Transition}},
author = {Gayatri Ghosh},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.12664},
eprint = {2609.12664},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.12664},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Phase Structure and Gravitational-Wave Phenomenology of a Thermal First-Order Phase Transition
AU - Gayatri Ghosh
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/11
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.12664
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.12664
AB - We investigate the phase structure and gravitational-wave (GW) phenomenology of a cosmological first-order phase transition described by the finite-temperature effective potential V(ϕ,T)=D(T^2−T_0^2)ϕ^2−ETϕ^3+λϕ^4/4. We derive the critical temperature and the broken-phase order parameter and identify the dimensionless combination E^2/(Dλ) that controls the critical-temperature shift. We then construct a dense numerical atlas containing 30 000 parameter points and map the resulting transition parameters onto the characteristic GW frequency and peak amplitude. The scan resolves the multidimensional correlations among T_*, α, β/H_*, v_w, f_peak and Ω_GW^peakh^2. The present analysis is phenomenological: T_* is defined by the prescription T_*=0.95T_c, while β/H_* and v_w are treated as scan inputs. Consequently, the resulting GW signals are not interpreted as first-principles predictions. We identify the additional ingredients required for a predictive calculation, including the thermal bounce action, nucleation and percolation temperatures, the transition duration and a microscopic treatment of bubble-wall friction. The resulting framework provides a systematic numerical characterization of the connection between the phase structure of the finite-temperature potential and the corresponding phenomenological GW parameter space.
ER -