Turn up the volume: Listening to phase transitions in hot dark sectors

2021/09/30 by Fatih Ertas, Felix Kahlhoefer, Carlo Tasillo · 44 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark energy #Dark matter #Dark photon #Hidden sector #Higgs boson #Particle physics #Phase transition #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #astro-ph.CO #hep-ph

paper · pdf · open access · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2022/02/014

published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 2022(02), 014 (Institute of Physics) · 31 pages, 10 figures + appendices. Comments welcome. v2: Updated eq. (2.16), added TransitionListener URL, minor corrections to text and figures after publication in JCAP

openalex created_date 2021/09/27 · openalex publication_date 2022/02/01 · arxiv created 2022/03/07 · arxiv updated 2022/03/08 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Stochastic gravitational wave (GW) backgrounds from first-order phase transitions are an exciting target for future GW observatories and may enable us to study dark sectors with very weak couplings to the Standard Model. In this work we show that such signals may be significantly enhanced for hot dark sectors with a temperature larger than the one of the SM thermal bath. The need to transfer the entropy from the dark sector to the SM after the phase transition can however lead to a substantial dilution of the GW signal. We study this dilution in detail, including the effect of number-changing processes in the dark sector (so-called cannibalism), and show that in large regions of parameter space a net enhancement remains. We apply our findings to a specific example of a dark sector containing a dark Higgs boson and a dark photon and find excellent detection prospects for LISA and the Einstein telescope.

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