Left-right symmetry breaking and gravitational waves: a tale of two phase transitions

Abstract

We study possible ways gravitational waves (GW) are sourced in a theory with minimal left-right symmetry breaking. Generically first order phase transitions (FOPT) lead to gravitational waves sourced by bubble dynamics, while second order phase transitions (SOPT) do not. However, due the presence of two degenerate fields, we obtain domain walls in the putative SOPT case, giving rise to GW via disintegrating domain walls, testable at experiments such as IPTA, DECIGO, and LISA. On the other hand, for the case of FOPT, we get the usual signal from spontaneously created bubbles, but there also arises a late forming domain wall structure separating the two types of vacua. The disintegration of these walls provides an additional source of GW. Thus the parameter range signaling FOPT case gives rise to two distinct peaks in the spectrum of GW. This is verifiable for the low symmetry breaking scales 104–106 GeV, but a high scale such as ∼1010 GeV remains beyond the reach of currently planned experiments. Finally, we point out that a version of the left-right symmetric model which separates the scale of parity breaking from that of gauge symmetry breaking is also subject to domain wall formation and amenable to GW observations.