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Detectability of gravitational waves from phase transitions

Tina Kahniashvili1,2,3,4,*, Arthur Kosowsky5,†, Grigol Gogoberidze1,4,6,‡, and Yurii Maravin1,§

  • 1Department of Physics, Kansas State University, 116 Cardwell Hall, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, USA
  • 2CCPP, New York University, 4 Washington Plaza, New York, New York 10003, USA
  • 3Department of Physics, Laurentian University, Ramsey Lake Road, Sudbury, ON P3E 2C6, Canada
  • 4National Abastumani Astrophysical Observatory, 2A Kazbegi Ave, Tbilisi, GE-0160, Georgia
  • 5Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, 3941 O’Hara Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260 USA
  • 6Centre for Plasma Astrophysics, K.U. Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200B, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

  • *tinatin@phys.ksu.edu
  • †kosowsky@pitt.edu
  • ‡gogober@geo.net.ge
  • §maravin@phys.ksu.edu
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Phys. Rev. D 78, 043003 – Published 8 August, 2008

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.78.043003

Abstract

Gravitational waves potentially represent our only direct probe of the universe when it was less than one second old. In particular, first-order phase transitions in the early universe can generate a stochastic background of gravitational waves which may be detectable today. We briefly summarize the physical sources of gravitational radiation from phase transitions and present semianalytic expressions for the resulting gravitational wave spectra from three distinct realistic sources: bubble collisions, turbulent plasma motions, and inverse-cascade helical magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. Using phenomenological parameters to describe phase transition properties, we determine the region of parameter space for which gravitational waves can be detected by the proposed Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. The electroweak phase transition is detectable for a wide range of parameters.

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Phys. Rev. D 78, 043003– Published 8 August, 2008
  • Received 2 June 2008

© 2008 American Physical Society

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