DYNAMICS OF PHASE TRANSITIONS

IN THE EARLY UNIVERSE

Mark Hindmarsh
Centre for Theoretical Physics
Sussex University

m.b.hindmarsh@sussex.ac.uk
 Introduction

According to the Hot Big Bang, the Early Universe was

uniform (almost ... )

dense and hot

in thermal equilibrium (almost ... )

The Classic Questions of Particle Cosmology

What’s the dark matter?

Where did the primordial perturbations come from?

Why is there more matter than antimatter?

and perhaps ...

How did magnetic fields appear?

Answers lie in the behaviour of matter away from thermal

equilibrium.

If the Universe had always been in equilibrium, it would

today be filled with only microwaves and neutrinos.
 Finite Temperature Field Theory in a Nutshell

Quantum fields can behave either like particles or waves.

e e

γ
 


 
 


 
  



 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  




 
 
 
 




 




 




 


 

 

 

 

  


e 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
e 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Quantum Classical
Low occupation number High occupation number

At high temperatures, the field behaves in both ways.

Occupation
number

Low energy “soft” 10 High energy “hard”

   

modes ( ) modes ( )
5
have high occupa- have low occupa-
n(E)

tion number. 0
tion number.
0 2 4 6

E/kT

Theory for soft modes is a classical field theory.

The hard modes behave like a highly relativistic plasma,
acting as a source for the classical fields and modifying
their parameters.a
a
Hard Thermal Loop effective Langrangian: Braaten and Pisarski
1992, Blaizot and Iancu 1993, Nair 1993.
 A model field theory



Scalar field e.g. Higgs field, pion field.

Effective Hamiltonian of soft modes:

      
 !
& (' 
  " #%$

! )  
 
465
#%$ #%*+
/. 1 0 " -,
  32,
 



!
The potential energy function #7$ changes shape at
98 

the critical temperature .

VT T>Tc

T=Tc

T<Tc

-v +v φ

The equation of motion of the field is (Minkowski space)

:

     =
:  .   ;, <. 0-  ;,



 A phase transition in action

First approximation: “rapid quench”

   8    8
( instantaneously).

Results:

quickly reaches
 almost everywhere

 =
but there are sheet-like regions where
(domain walls)

evolution of walls is self-similar

 )
Area  , with   .

A particle physics example of phase ordering dynamics.

Q: Are there domain walls in the Universe?

A: No - they are too massive to avoid detection.a

Many extensions of the Standard Model of particle

physics have domain walls (e.g. spontaneous CP
violation) – constrained by cosmology
a
Zel’dovich Ya B, Kobzarev I Yu and Okun’ L B 1975 Sov. Phys. JETP
40 1 [Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 67 3 (1974)]
 Simulations of scalar field theory
 
  
  
  
 

Numerical simulations: re-

 

a
 



 
 




x+j
place with  
  
  
  
 

x-i x x+i
defined on a cubic lattice.  

x-j
 
 
! ! 
 

Numerical approximations to derivatives:


6
.
"$#&% ' ( -,/.
)

(+*


  
 
' 1 '
0
) )


,
2 4
32 5

Time evolution: Leapfrog algorithm. Define at

different times, timestep . Accurate to 6 7 6  .
   
 
2 4
2 2 98 5
:
6

  
  
2 1 4 2 4
5 5 2
:
; 6



 . #
%@? 2
<>= 0
; A

Initial conditions:


Gaussian Random Field simulates high .

Dissipation period simulates cooling
BDCFE BDE S S
GON C E C C NYE EDZK[ \

BHG C IKJML BPG Q R I L TVUPW Q X I TVU

 2D relativistic domain wall simulation

  = 

Gaussian Random Field

 
=  =

  ;=  =

  =  =

  ;  =

  =   =
 2==

' '
a
Simulation details: , ,
a
T. Garagounis and M. Hindmarsh, 1999
http://www.pcss.maps.susx.ac.uk/users/kapl9/
 Domain wall scaling

2D simulations of relativistic scalar field theory.a

 

If length densityb 
, 98 ,

 , then

Characteristic lengthscale of 2D walls

160

140

120

100

80
ξ

60

40

20

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
t


   = 2
Linear fit to

*  , with

Average of 4 simulations.
 
, 
 
[ \ [ S \

Cooling: ,
  
J

  , 
[ \ G9[ \ [ \ \

Lattice: ,

a
Also: Press, Ryden, Spergel; Coulson, Lalak, Ovrut; Larsson, Sarkar, White
b
2D length density   !#"%$&'")( .
 Another model field theory

 
Abelian Higgs model: two scalar fields ,

 

 
8

.a
 , vector field

Effective Hamiltonian of soft modes:


 
 

! 
 "   # $
     ! "   

! )

5
#%$ #%*+        ,
 

 



 ,  5   . 0 
 8 8  8

where 
.

VT T>Tc

T=Tc

The potential energy function

!
T<Tc

# $ changes shape at the

 8 φ2
critical temperature .
φ1

a
Temporal gauge   
 Abelian Higgs model phase transition

a
Numerical simulations of a rapid quench:

Rapid quench makes cosmic strings

evolution of strings is also self-similar

  )
Length   , with


Q: Are there cosmic strings in the Universe?

A: Maybe ...

string mass density remains a constant small fraction

of total
produce density and temperature perturbations
 ) =  

 , 

if from a Grand Unified transition!

But ... quantitative predictions not promisingb

But ... too many cosmic rays?
a
Vincent, Antunes, Hindmarsh Phys. Rev. Lett. 80 (1998) 2277 hep-ph/9708427
Antunes, Hindmarsh, McNair, Vincent in preparation
b
COSMOS Consortium: Magueijo, Albrecht, Ferreira, Coulson 1996; Albrecht, Battye, Robinson 1997;
Avelino, Shellard, Wu, Allen 1998; Contaldi, Magueijo, Hindmarsh 1999; Battye and Weller 1999.
 Simulations of Abelian Higgs model

Numerical simulations: replace             

 


.
.

with 

) 

) x+j   Ai,x+j   x+i+j
 
           
Aj,x Aj,x+i
defined on the links of a cubic lattice.



)

  


)




Ai,x   




      
Electric field x x+i


Numerical approximations: covariant derivative 
 

 ! 
  
.
)
,/.
) 

)
 1 *


8

and  becomes (Wilson)


 #
-,
 5  . $&%('


)
 !)

. 

)
+* . !)


. 1 * 1

 
"!
)

.  . 
:  :0/ 
Time evolution: Leapfrog algorithm. Accurate to 7 6  .

2 2 98 , 2
:
6

/  / 
:  : . 
.
2 1 4 2 4
5 5 , 2
:
6

 
M = Momentum (
2 1 4 2 1 4
2 2 5 5

F = Field ( 
), 
).
 
) )

1
Preserves discrete version of Gauss’s Law :
.

Initial conditions:


)
 =
Gaussian random field on , but .
Two dissipation periods:
 =
(1)  (2)  increasing to final value.
 Cosmic string scaling
 

If lengtha density #   #
, ,

, then

Characteristic length of Abelian Higgs string network
35

30

25
Characteristic length

20
360
432

15

10

5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time

Average of 5(10) simulations, with parameters

[ S [ 
Field:
, ,

U


,    
[ \ [ \ S \ \

Cooling: ,
    
J I
 
  , 
[ \ G9[ \ S [ T \ N

Lattice: , L

Least squares fits to: Interval 432 360

 G N [  G
\
G
S \ \
L  I  0.92 0.91
(Table: )  \
G
S \ \

0.88 0.89
a
Let  be number of plaquettes pierced by string (assigned by
geodesic rule). Then    .
 Cosmic string loops

Long (“infinite”) string:

Loops:


If energy is being lost from long string to long lived loops
we would expect the fraction of the total length to grow as

 from the beginning of the simulation.
x 10
−3 Population of loops shorter than the characteristic length
10
Total length in small loops as a fraction of total network length

360
432

−2
−20 0 20 40 60 80 100
Time

Average of 5(10) simulations, with parameters

[ S [ 
Field:
, U ,
 
,    
[ \ [ \ S \ \

Cooling: J I ,
      
  ,
[ \ G9[ \ S [ T \ N

Lattice: , 

L
 Electroweak phase transition & baryogenesis

Sakharov conditions for baryogenesis:

B violation Electroweak theory has unstable topological

defects – sphalerons (S). Formation and decay of S
results in change in  of LH fermions.
C and CP violation C violation automatic in SM. CP
violation needs more than CKM.

non-equilibrium Supercooling at 1st order phase

transition?

Standard Model phase diagram (Kajantie et al 1996):

T(GeV)

n
sitio
tran
Symmetric phase No
110 n 2nd order transition
tio
nsi
tra
er
ord
!st
Higgs phase

75 m h(GeV)
 Electroweak baryogenesis: current

Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model:

LEP Higgs mass bounds (just) allow 1st order
a
transition:

  = 
 #
#

  
=  =

  
     #
#



 
 

CP violation from
,

( (

6 , , and neutralino
mass matrices.b
Mechanism:c
CP-violating bubble wall: asymmetry in reflection of
fermions
Sphalerons convert chiral asymmetry in front of wall
into baryon asymmetry.
v
v L
Lc
R
c
R
v v

a
Espinosa, de Carlos 1996; Laine, Rummukainen 1998; Cline, Moore 1998
b
Huet, Nelson 1996; Carena et al 1997; Cline, Kainulainen 2000
c
Cohen, Kaplan, Nelson 1991
 Electroweak baryogenesis: future

Suppose Higgs mass bound keeps going up?

EW transition becomes non-perturbative

Need numerical simulations (classical + thermal bath)

baryo.f90 - current status:

 Summary

Classical relativistic field theory can be applied to

phase transitions in the early Universe (with care).

In models with the production of topological defects

(domain walls, strings) dynamical scaling emerges.
 )
Scaling law:
 with


Extrapolation of numerical simulations?
(Controversial - cosmic rays from cosmic strings)

(Improved) classical field theory simulations may be

the only way of calculating the baryon asymmetry of
the Universe.