Gravitational waves from a first order electroweak phase transition: a brief review

Abstract

We review the production of gravitational waves by an electroweak first order phase transition. The resulting signal is a good candidate for detection at next-generation gravitational wave detectors, such as LISA. Detection of such a source of gravitational waves could yield information about physics beyond the Standard Model that is complementary to that accessible to current and near-future collider experiments. We summarise efforts to simulate and model the phase transition and the resulting production of gravitational waves.

Comments: 18+1 pages, 6 figures; Based on a talk presented at the Theo Murphy scientific meeting on Higgs cosmology, 28 March 2017; v2: references added, minor changes to title and text, accepted for publication; v3: added erratum to correct sound wave GW spectrum, updated references to published articles, no other changes