Feasibility of ultrarelativistic bubbles in SMEFT

Abstract

A first order electroweak phase transition probes physics beyond the Standard Model on multiple frontiers and therefore is of immense interest for theoretical exploration. We conduct a model-independent study of the effects of relevant dimension 6 and dimension 8 operators, of the Standard Model effective field theory, on electroweak phase transition. We use a thermally corrected and renormalization group improved potential and study its impact on nucleation temperature. We then outline bubble dynamics that lead to ultrarelativistic bubble wall velocities which are mainly motivated from the viewpoint of gravitational wave detection. We highlight the ranges of the Wilson coefficients that give rise to such bubble wall velocities and predict gravitational wave spectra generated by such transitions which can be tested in future experiments. Published by the American Physical Society 2024