Searching for new physics with gravitational waves

by Jorinde van de Vis

Tuesday Nov 25, 2025, 4:15 PM → 5:45 PM Europe/Berlin

H6 (UHG)

In many extensions of the Standard Model, the electroweak phase transition is first order. Such a phase transition proceeds via the formation and collision of bubbles. The bubble collisions can source a stochastic gravitational wave background signal, with characteristic frequency right in the sensitivity band of future gravitational wave telescope LISA. We can thus use data from gravitational wave experiments to probe physics beyond the standard model. 

I will give a brief overview of the different contributions to the gravitational wave signal, and then focus on the contribution from fluid motion which gets generated by the interactions between the plasma and the bubble walls. I will discuss the parameters that describe the phase transition, and how they can be computed.

Lastly, I will talk about the possibility of generating the matter-antimatter asymmetry during the electroweak phase transition via electroweak baryogenesis; and discuss its theoretical and experimental status.

2025-11-25-DrJorindevandeVis.pdf