Prof. Mark Hindmarsh (University of Sussex) - Waves from Phase Transitions in the Early Universe

Tuesday 7 Nov 2017, 16:15 → 17:15 Europe/Berlin

Main Auditorium (MPP)

About 10 picoseconds after the beginning of the Universe, the Higgs field turned on. In extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics, this could have been a first order phase transition, with the spontaneously nucleated bubbles of the Higgs phase expanding and colliding at relativistic speeds. I will discuss how sound waves from colliding bubbles generate gravitational radiation, prospects for observing the radiation at the future space-based gravitational wave detector LISA, and outline how LISA complements the LHC as a probe of physics beyond the Standard Model.