Learn about cosmological phase transitions and gravitational waves in this 23-minute lecture from the Workshop on Phase Transitions and Topological Defects in the Early Universe. Explore how thermal loop fluctuations drive phase transitions and modify background fields, leading to challenges in theoretical calculations. Discover the application of effective field theory in addressing long-standing theoretical problems, including renormalization scale dependence, gauge dependence, and thermal nucleation rates. Delve into the hierarchies present in phase transitions, high-temperature effective field theory, and the connection to classical nucleation theory. Follow along as Dr. Oliver Gould from the University of Nottingham explains the current understanding of theoretical uncertainties and the tools developed to overcome them, particularly in the context of gravitational wave predictions.
Overview
Syllabus
Intro
Cosmological first-order phase transitions
Gravitational waves from phase transitions: the pipeline
Phase transition parameters
Standard approach to computing parameters
Theoretical uncertainties
What has gone wrong?
Hierarchies in phase transitions
High temperature effective field theory
Problem: renormalisation scale dependence
EFT solution: renormalisation scale independence
Problem: gauge dependence.
EFT solution: gauge independence
Problem: what is the thermal nucleation rate?
EFT solution: match to classical nucleation theory
Conclusions
Taught by
Harvard CMSA
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