Theoretical uncertainties for cosmological first-order phase transitions

Croon, Djuna; Gould, Oliver; Schicho, Philipp; Tenkanen, Tuomas V. I.; White, Graham

Abstract

We critically examine the magnitude of theoretical uncertainties in perturbative calculations of fist-order phase transitions, using the Standard Model effective field theory as our guide. In the usual daisy-resummed approach, we find large uncertainties due to renormalisation scale dependence, which amount to two to three orders-of-magnitude uncertainty in the peak gravitational wave amplitude, relevant to experiments such as LISA. Alternatively, utilising dimensional reduction in a more sophisticated perturbative approach drastically reduces this scale dependence, pushing it to higher orders. Further, this approach resolves other thorny problems with daisy resummation: it is gauge invariant which is explicitly demonstrated for the Standard Model, and avoids an uncontrolled derivative expansion in the bubble nucleation rate.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 28, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Apr 7, 2021
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: Sep 8, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 8, 2021
• Journal: Journal of High Energy Physics
• Electronic ISSN: 1029-8479
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2021
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: 55
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04%282021%29055
• Keywords: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/6187492
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FJHEP04%282021%29055
• Additional Information: Received: 30 September 2020; Revised: 15 February 2021; Accepted: 28 February 2021; First Online: 7 April 2021