Connecting the electroweak sphaleron with gravitational waves
Ruiyu Zhou, Ligong Bian, Huai-Ke Guo
Abstract
We study and reveal the relation between the electroweak sphaleron energy and the gravitational wave signals from a first-order electroweak phase transition. For the first time, we find that a larger sphaleron energy corresponds to a stronger gravitational wave signal for a sufficiently strong phase transition. We also present the correlation between the sphaleron and the properties of the gravitational waves, such as the signal-to-noise ratio, peak frequency, and amplitude, with the intention that traces of the sphaleron can be obtained with detailed measurement and studies of the stochastic gravitational wave at future space-based detectors. This study paves the way for a more practical revelation of the sphaleron which is otherwise unprobable at high energy colliders.