Speaker
Description
We examine first-order phase transitions within a hidden $U(1)_X$ sector as potential sources of stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds, with particular emphasis on supercooling and gauge invariance considerations. We establish that supercooled phase transitions provide a viable mechanism for explaining observed pulsar timing array signals and demonstrate that the distinct thermal evolutionary pathways of hidden and visible sectors exert substantial influence on the resulting gravitational wave power spectrum. Additionally, we identify that gauge-dependent formulations can introduce significant systematic uncertainties in gravitational wave predictions for supercooled phase transitions. To address this limitation, we develop a manifestly gauge-invariant computational framework based on the Metaxas--Weinberg formalism, specifically adapted for the analysis of supercooled phase transition dynamics.
| Session Selection | Particle and Nuclear Physics |
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