Hubble-induced phase transitions: Walls are not forever

DOI10.1088/1475-7516/2020/01/002zbMATH Open1489.83072arXiv1911.03484OpenAlexW3103315090MaRDI QIDQ5067787FDOQ5067787

Authors: Dario Bettoni, Javier Rubio 

Publication date: 4 April 2022

Published in: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The interplay between non-minimally coupled scalar fields and a kinetic-dominated era following the end of inflation triggers the spontaneous symmetry breaking of internal symmetries and the subsequent evolution of the fields towards large expectation values. We present here a detailed analysis of the associated dynamics in quintessential inflation scenarios involving a non-minimally coupled $Z_2$-symmetric spectator field. By analytically following the evolution of the spectator field fluctuations at early times, we characterize the formation of classical, homogeneous and spatially-localized field configurations separated by domain walls. The life expectancy of these dividing barriers is set by the scale of inflation, the non-minimal coupling and self-interactions of the spectator field and potentially, but not necessarily, the duration of the heating stage. For most of the parameter space, the domain walls are doomed to disappear before big bang nucleosynthesis. Potential phenomenological consequences of the scenario are discussed.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.03484

zbMATH Keywords

domain wallsinflationmonopolescosmic stringsphysics of the early universecosmological phase transitions

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Surgery obstructions, Wall groups (57R67) Classical and relativistic thermodynamics (80A10) Symmetry breaking in quantum theory (81R40) Dynamic and nonequilibrium phase transitions (general) in statistical mechanics (82C26) Black holes (83C57) Relativistic cosmology (83F05) Geometrodynamics and the holographic principle (83E05) Mono-, di- and multipole moments (EM and other), gyromagnetic relations (81V60)

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Cited In (8)

• Gravitational shine of dark domain walls
• Phase transitions in an expanding universe: stochastic gravitational waves in standard and non-standard histories
• From Hubble to bubble
• Boosting ultraviolet freeze-in in NO models
• Gravitational waves from a curvature-induced phase transition of a Higgs-portal dark matter sector
• Palatini R ² quintessential inflation
• Hubble-induced phase transitions on the lattice with applications to Ricci reheating
• Primordial dark matter from curvature induced symmetry breaking

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