Gauge-invariant bubble nucleation and gravitational waves from first-order electroweak phase transitions
A long-standing problem in electroweak phase transition studies is the spurious gauge dependence of bubble nucleation rate calculations, which introduces large systematic uncertainties in predictions of gravitational waves and related cosmological phenomena. We address this issue by presenting a systematic study of gauge-invariant bubble nucleation within a phenomenologically realistic effective field theory framework. Using the three-dimensional thermal effective field theory formalism with a consistent power-counting scheme, we rigorously establish the gauge invariance of the physical nucleation rate up to two-loop order. This proof eliminates the gauge-parameter dependence of key phase transition parameters, providing a robust theoretical foundation for precise calculations of gravitational waves, electroweak baryogenesis, and primordial magnetogenesis.
展开 ▾规范不变的泡泡成核与一阶电弱相变产生的引力波 · 本文在有效场论框架下严格证明了泡泡成核率在双圈阶的规范不变性,消除了相变参数对规范参数的依赖,为引力波等宇宙学现象预测提供了坚实基础。
预印本 2025-12-05 · 刊出 2026-08-31 · 收录 2026-09-06