Gravitational Waves from Phase Transitions in the Early Universe
by
Prof.Mark Hindmarsh(University of Sussex)
→
Europe/Berlin
Auditorium (MPI Meeting rooms)
Auditorium
MPI Meeting rooms
Description
About 10 picoseconds after the beginning of the Universe, the Higgs field turned on. In extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics, this could have been a first order phase transition, with the spontaneously nucleated bubbles of the Higgs phase expanding and colliding at relativistic speeds. I will discuss how sound waves from colliding bubbles generate gravitational radiation, prospects for observing the radiation at the future space-based gravitational wave detector LISA, and outline how LISA complements the LHC as a probe of physics beyond the Standard Model.
