Reflections on bubble walls

doi:10.1007/JHEP09(2023)013

Reflections on bubble walls

2023-09-04

11

OA

AI

I

Isabel García García *

G

Giacomo Koszegi

R

Rudin Petrossian-Byrne

DOI：10.1007/JHEP09(2023)013

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Abstract

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We discuss the dynamics of expanding bubble walls in the presence of massive dark photons whose mass changes as they cross the wall. For sufficiently thin walls, we show that there exists a transient kinematic regime characterized by a constant reflection probability of longitudinal - but not transverse - modes. This effect can have important implications for the dynamics of expanding vacuum bubbles in the early Universe. Most notably, it leads to a new source of pressure on the expanding interface, featuring a non-monotonic dependence on the gamma-factor of the bubble walls and reaching a peak at intermediate gamma-factors that we dub Maximum Dynamic Pressure. When this pressure is large enough to halt the acceleration of the bubble walls, the difference in vacuum energy densities goes into making a fraction of the dark photons relativistic, turning them into dark radiation. If the dark radiation remains relativistic until late times, an observable contribution to Delta N-eff is possible for phase transitions with strength alpha similar to 10(-2) - 10(-1).

Keywords:

Early Universe Particle Physics

Phase Transitions in the Early Universe

Specific BSM Phenomenology

Reflections on bubble walls

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