Journal ArticleDOI
Gravitational radiation from colliding vacuum bubbles.
Arthur Kosowsky,Arthur Kosowsky,Michael S. Turner,Michael S. Turner,Richard Watkins,Richard Watkins +5 more
TLDR
This work implies that the vacuum-bubble collisions associated with strongly first-order phase transition are a very potent cosmological source of gravitational radiation.Abstract:
In the linearized-gravity approximation we numerically compute the amount of gravitational radiation produced by the collision of two true-vacuum bubbles in Minkowski space. The bubbles are separated by distance d and we calculate the amount of gravitational radiation that is produced in a time \ensuremath{\tau}\ensuremath{\sim}d (in a cosmological phase transition \ensuremath{\tau} corresponds to the duration of the transition, which is expected to be of the order of the mean bubble separation d). Our approximations are generally valid for \ensuremath{\tau}\ensuremath{\lesssim}${\mathit{H}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$. We find that the amount of gravitational radiation produced depends only upon the grossest features of the collision: the time \ensuremath{\tau} and the energy density associated with the false-vacuum state, ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\rho}}}_{\mathrm{vac}}$. In particular, the spectrum ${\mathit{dE}}_{\mathrm{GW}}$/d\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\propto}${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\rho}}}_{\mathrm{vac}}^{2}$${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\tau}}}^{6}$ and peaks at a characteristic frequency ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{\mathrm{max}}$\ensuremath{\simeq}3.8/\ensuremath{\tau}, and the fraction of the vacuum energy released into gravitational waves is about 1.3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}3}$(\ensuremath{\tau}/${\mathit{H}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$${)}^{2}$, where ${\mathit{H}}^{2}$=8\ensuremath{\pi}G${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\rho}}}_{\mathrm{vac}}$/3 (\ensuremath{\tau}/${\mathit{H}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$ is expected to be of the order of a few percent). We address in some detail the important symmetry issues in the problem, and how the familiar ``quadrupole approximation'' breaks down in a most unusual way: it overestimates the amount of gravitational radiation produced in this highly relativistic situation by more than a factor of 50. Most of our results are for collisions of bubbles of equal size, though we briefly consider the collision of vacuum bubbles of unequal size. Our work implies that the vacuum-bubble collisions associated with strongly first-order phase transition are a very potent cosmological source of gravitational radiation.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Science with the space-based interferometer eLISA. II: Gravitational waves from cosmological phase transitions
Chiara Caprini,Mark Hindmarsh,Mark Hindmarsh,Stephan J. Huber,Thomas Konstandin,Jonathan Kozaczuk,Germano Nardini,Jose Miguel No,Antoine Petiteau,Pedro Schwaller,Geraldine Servant,David J. Weir +11 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the potential for the eLISA space-based interferometer to detect the stochastic gravitational wave background produced by strong first-order cosmological phase transitions.
Journal ArticleDOI
Cosmological Backgrounds of Gravitational Waves
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review early universe sources that can lead to cosmological backgrounds of GWs and discuss the basic characteristics of present and future GW detectors, including advanced LIGO, advanced Virgo, the Einstein telescope, KAGRA, and LISA.
Journal ArticleDOI
Energy budget of cosmological first-order phase transitions
TL;DR: In this article, the authors study the hydrodynamics of bubble growth in first-order phase transitions and predict the size of the gravity wave signal resulting from bubble collisions, which depends on both the bubble wall velocity and the plasma fluid velocity.
Journal ArticleDOI
Gravitational wave production by collisions: more bubbles
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors re-examine the production of gravitational waves by bubble collisions during a first-order phase transition and find that the spectrum rises as f3.0 for small frequencies and decreases as f−1.5 for high frequencies.
Journal ArticleDOI
Science with the space-based interferometer LISA. IV: probing inflation with gravitational waves
Nicola Bartolo,Chiara Caprini,Valerie Domcke,Daniel G. Figueroa,Juan Garcia-Bellido,Maria Chiara Guzzetti,Michele Liguori,Sabino Matarrese,Marco Peloso,Antoine Petiteau,Angelo Ricciardone,Mairi Sakellariadou,Lorenzo Sorbo,Gianmassimo Tasinato +13 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the LISA space-based interferometer was used to detect the stochastic gravitational wave background produced from different mechanisms during inflation, focusing on well-motivated scenarios.