Cambridge High Energy Workshop 2022 - Phase Transitions and Topological Defects in the Early Universe

2 Aug 2022, 09:00 → 5 Aug 2022, 17:00 America/New_York

Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications (CMSA), Harvard University

General Information:

The particle physics groups at Harvard and MIT are organizing the second Cambridge High Energy Workshop. This year the focus of this topical BSM workshop is on recent developments in phase transitions and topological defects in the Early Universe.

Format:

In person! There will be 20+10 min talks, ample discussion time, and lightning chalkboard talks.

For those who missed the registration deadline for in-person attendance, it is still possible to register for the virtual Zoom webinar via the CMSA website.

Location:

Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications (CMSA), Harvard University. Directions, lodging recommendations, etc.

Organizers: 

Pouya Asadi, Nick DePorzio, Katie Fraser, Sam Homiller, Rashmish Mishra, Marianne Moore, Aditya Parikh, Yitian Sun.

Contacts: Marianne Moore (mamoore@mit.edu), Yitian Sun (yitians@mit.edu).

Advising Committee: 

Julian B. Muñoz, Lisa Randall, Matthew Reece, Tracy Slatyer, Shing-Tung Yau.

Confirmed List of Speakers:

Nancy Aggarwal (Northwestern)
Jae Hyeok Chang (UMD - JHU)
Yanou Cui (UC Riverside)
David Dunsky (UC Berkeley)
Isabel Garcia-Garcia (KITP - UCSB)
Oliver Gould (Nottingham)
Yann Gouttenoire (Tel-Aviv)
Eleanor Hall (UC Berkeley)
Sungwoo Hong (Chicago)
Anson Hook (UMD)
Jessica Howard (UC Irvine)
Seth Koren (Chicago)
Mrunal Korwar (Wisconsin)
Soubhik Kumar (UC Berkeley)
Vuk Mandic (Minnesota)
Yuto Minami (Osaka)
Michael Nee (Oxford)
Kai Schmitz (CERN)
Stephen R. Taylor (Vanderbilt University)
Ofri Telem (UC Berkeley)
Yikun Wang (Caltech)

Tuesday, 2 August

Opening Remarks

Rashmish Mishra

Convener: Rashmish Mishra (Harvard U.)

chew-2022-opening.pdf

Observation - Experiments

1 Searching for the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background with LISA

The upcoming space-borne gravitational wave detector Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will open a window into the milliHertz band of the gravitational wave spectrum. Among the many sources in this band is the stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB), arising as an incoherent superposition of many uncorrelated gravitational wave sources. The SGWB could be of cosmological origin, carrying unique information about the physical processes that took place within the first minute after the big bang, including possible phase transitions and topological defects. LISA therefore has the potential to illuminate particle physics at very high energy scales that may be inaccessible in laboratories. I will discuss how LISA can be used to search for the SGWB, highlighting a new pipeline developed for this purpose as well as several challenges and limitations that such a search will encounter.

Speaker: Vuk Mandic (Minnesota U.)

202208_CMSA.pdf

2 Gravitational waves at frequencies above 10 kHz

Gravitational waves (GWs) at frequencies higher than the LIGO band can bring us completely new information about the universe. Besides being the most-interesting frequency region for looking at cosmological phenomena, they can also convey signatures of ultralight bosons through blackhole superradiance and light primordial blackholes (PBHs). I will introduce a new global initiative to study GW sources and detectors at ultra-high-frequencies (MHz-GHz), as well as a new experiment at Northwestern University to look for GWs in the frequency band of 10 kHz to 300 kHz using levitated optomechanical sensors. I will summarize the design, the current experimental progress, as well as a path forward for future improvements.

Speaker: Nancy Agarwal (Northwestern U.)

Aggarwal_CMSA_2022.pdf

3 New measurements of the cosmic birefringence

Polarised light of the cosmic microwave background, the remnant light of the Big Bang, is sensitive to parity-violating physics, cosmic birefringence. In this presentation I report on a new measurement of cosmic birefringence from polarisation data of the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Planck satellite released in 2018. The statistical significance of the measured signal is 2.4 sigma. Recently, we found a signal with 3.3 sigma statistical significance when we use the latest Planck data and consider an effect of polarised foreground emission. If confirmed with higher statistical significance in future, it would have important implications for the elusive nature of dark matter and dark energy.

Speaker: Yuto Minami (Osaka U.)

20220802_CosmicBirefringence_25min_CMSA_Minami.pdf

Lightning Talks 1

4 Marius Kongsore

5 Nick DePorzio

6 Winston Yin

Observation - Blackholes

7 Correlating gravitational wave and gamma-ray signals from primordial black holes

Asteroid-mass primordial black holes (PBHs) can explain the observed dark matter abundance while being consistent with the current indirect detection constraints. These PBHs can produce gamma-ray signals from Hawking radiation that are within the sensitivity of future measurements by the AMEGO and e-ASTROGAM experiments. PBHs which give rise to such observable gamma-ray signals have a cosmic origin from large primordial curvature fluctuations. There must then be a companion, stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background produced by the same curvature fluctuations. I will demonstrate that the resulting GW signals will be well within the sensitivity of future detectors such as LISA, DECIGO, BBO, and the Einstein Telescope. The multimessenger signal from the observed gamma-rays and GWs will allow a precise measurement of the primordial curvature perturbation that produces the PBH. I will also argue that the resulting correlation between the two types of observations can provide a smoking-gun signal of PBHs.

Speaker: Jae Hyeok Chang (Maryland U.)

Slides_Chang.pdf

8 Early Universe Cosmology from Stochastic Gravitational Waves

The causal tail of stochastic gravitational waves can be used to probe the energy density in free streaming relativistic species as well as measure gstar and beta functions as a function of temperature. In the event of the discovery of loud stochastic gravitational waves, we demonstrate that LISA can measure the free streaming fraction of the universe down to the 10^-3 level, 100 times more sensitive than current constraints. Additionally, it would be sensitive to O(1) deviations of gstar and the QCD beta function from their Standard Model value at temperatures ~ 10^5 GeV. In this case, many motivated models such as split SUSY and other solutions to the Electroweak Hierarchy problem would be tested. Future detectors, such as DECIGO, would be 100 times more sensitive than LISA to these effects and be capable of testing other motivated scenarios such as WIMPs and axions. The amazing prospect of using precision gravitational wave measurements to test such well motivated theories provides a benchmark to aim for when developing a precise understanding of the gravitational wave spectrum both experimentally and theoretically.

Speaker: Anson Hook (Maryland U.)

AH_harvard.pdf

Wednesday, 3 August

Theoretical Developments - Gravitational waves

9 Gravitational waves from metastable cosmic strings

Cosmic strings are predicted by many Standard Model extensions involving the cosmological breaking of an Abelian symmetry and represent a potential source of primordial gravitational waves (GWs). In many Grand Unified Theories (GUTs), cosmic strings especially turn out to be metastable, as the nucleation of GUT monopoles along strings after a finite lifetime eventually leads to the collapse of the entire string network. In this talk, I will discuss the theoretical description of such a network and its individual components as well as the consequences for the emitted GW spectrum. Remarkably, the GW signal from metastable strings may well explain the common-spectrum process recently observed in pulsar timing data, while at the same time and in contrast to stable cosmic strings predicting a signal at higher frequencies that is still within the reach of current-generation ground-based interferometers. On their way to design sensitivity, existing GW experiments will thus have a realistic chance to probe particle physics processes at energies close to the GUT scale via the observation of GWs from metastable strings. This talk is based on 2107.04578 in collaboration with Wilfried Buchmüller and Valerie Domcke.

Speaker: Kai Schmitz (CERN)

2022_08_cmsa_workshop.pdf

10 Effective field theory for cosmological phase transitions

Phase transitions are driven by thermal loop fluctuations, which modify background fields at leading order. This breaks the loop expansion and leads to large theoretical uncertainties in typical calculations, especially for gravitational wave predictions. I will give an overview of our present understanding of these uncertainties, and of the tools that have been developed to overcome them. Effective field theory has been at the forefront of this development, and I will outline how it can be used to solve a number of decades-long-standing theoretical problems.

Speaker: Oliver Gould (Nottingham U.)

Gould_EFT.pdf

11 The Rocket Science of Expanding Bubbles

Speaker: Isabel Garcia Garcia (KITP)

Lightning Talk 2

12 Isaac Wang

13 Katie Fraser

14 Peizhi Du

15 Sarah Geller

16 Tong Ou

Topological Defects - Gravitational waves

17 Gravitational Wave Gastronomy

The symmetry breaking of grand unified gauge groups in the early universe often leaves behind relic topological defects such as cosmic strings, domain walls, or monopoles. For some symmetry breaking chains, hybrid defects can form where cosmic strings attach to domain walls or monopoles attach to strings. In general, such hybrid defects are unstable and can leave behind unique gravitational wave fingerprints. In this talk, I will discuss the gravitational wave spectrum from 1) the destruction of a cosmic string network by the nucleation of monopoles which cut up and “eat” the strings, 2) the collapse and decay of a monopole-string network by strings that “eat” the monopoles, 3) the destruction of a domain wall network by the nucleation of string-bounded holes on the wall that expand and “eat” the wall, and 4) the collapse and decay of a string-bounded wall network by walls that “eat” the strings. We call the gravitational wave signals produced from the “eating” of one topological defect by another “gravitational wave gastronomy”. The gravitational wave gastronomy signals considered yield unique spectra that can be used to narrow down the SO(10) symmetry breaking chain to the Standard Model and the scales of symmetry breaking associated with the consumed topological defects.

Speaker: David Dunsky (Berkeley U.)

Gravitational_Wave_Gastronomy_Dunsky.pdf

18 Cosmic Archaeology with gravitational waves from (axion) cosmic strings

In this talk I will discuss important aspects of cosmology and particle physics that can be probed with GW signals from cosmic strings: probing the pre-BBN primordial dark age and axion physics. Gravitational waves (GWs) originating from the dynamics of a cosmic string network have the ability to probe many otherwise inaccessible properties of the early universe. In particular, I will discuss how the frequency spectrum of a stochastic GW background (SGWB) from a cosmic string network can be used to probe Hubble expansion rate of the early universe prior to Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), during the “primordial dark age”. Furthermore I will show that in contrast to the standard expectation, cosmic strings formed before inflation could regrow back into the horizon and leave imprints, with GW bursts potentially being the leading signal. In relation to axion physics I will also demonstrate the detection prospect for SGWB from global/axion strings which may provide a new probe for axion-like dark matter models, considering various scenarios of cosmic history.

Speaker: Yanou Cui (UC Riverside)

stringGW@Cambridge22_YCui.pdf

19 The Boring Monopole

First order phase transitions play an important role in the cosmology of many theories of BSM physics. In this talk I will discuss how a population of magnetic monopoles present in the early universe can seed first order phase transitions, causing them to proceed much more rapidly than in the usual case. The field profiles describing the decay do not have the typically assumed O(3)/O(4) symmetry, thus requiring an extension of the usual decay rate calculation. To numerically determine the saddle point solutions which describe the decay we use a new algorithm based on the mountain pass theorem. Our results show that monopole-catalysed tunnelling can dominate over the homogeneous decay for a wide range of parameters.

Speaker: Michael Nee (Oxford U.)

CHEW Monopole Decay.pdf

Thursday, 4 August

BSM

20 A New Approach to Electroweak Symmetry Non-Restoration

Electroweak symmetry non-restoration up to high temperatures well above the electroweak scale has intriguing implications for (electroweak) baryogenesis and early universe thermal histories. In this talk, I will discuss such a possible fate of the electroweak symmetry in the early universe and a new approach to realize it, via an inert Higgs sector that couples to the Standard Model Higgs as well as an extended scalar singlet sector. Examples of benchmark scenarios that allow for electroweak symmetry non-restoration all the way up to hundreds of TeV temperatures, at the same time featuring suppressed sphaleron washout factors down to the electroweak scale, will be presented. Renormalization group improvements and thermal resummation, necessary to evaluate the effective potential spanning over a broad range of energy scales and temperatures, have been implemented calculating the thermal history. This method for transmitting the Standard Model broken electroweak symmetry to an inert Higgs sector can be scrutinized through Higgs physics phenomenology and electroweak precision measurements at the HL-LHC.

Speaker: Yikun Wang (Caltech)

Cambridge_EWNR_pub2.pdf

21 Probing primordial fluctuations through stochastic gravitational wave background anisotropies

Stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds are expected to be anisotropic. While such anisotropies can be of astrophysical origin, a cosmological component of such anisotropies can carry rich information about primordial perturbations. Focusing on the case of a cosmological phase transition, I will talk about how such anisotropies can give us a powerful probe of primordial non-Gaussianities, complementary to current and future CMB and LSS searches. In the scenario where astrophysical foregrounds are also present, I will then discuss some strategies using which we can extract the cosmological signal, focusing on the case of LISA, Taiji and BBO, in particular.

Speaker: Soubhik Kumar (Berkeley U.)

NGGW_SK.pdf

22 Dark Matter Freeze-out during SU(2)_L Confinement

We explore the possibility that dark matter is a pair of SU(2)_L doublets and propose a novel mechanism of dark matter production that proceeds through the confinement of the weak sector of the Standard Model. This phase of confinement causes the Standard Model doublets and dark matter to confine into pion-like objects. Before the weak sector deconfines, the dark pions freezeout and generate a relic abundance of dark matter. We solve the Boltzmann equations for this scenario to determine the scale of confinement and constituent dark matter mass required to produce the observed relic density. We determine which regions of this parameter space evade direct detection and collider bounds.

Speaker: Jessica Howard (UC Irvine)

Howard_Jessica_CMSAWorkshop2022.pdf

23 Quantum Matter Adventure to Beyond the Standard Model Prediction

Ideas developed from the quantum matter and quantum field theory frontier may guide us to explore new physics beyond the 4d Standard Model. I propose a few such ideas. First, new physics for neutrinos: right-handed neutrinos carry a Z_{16} class mixed gauge-gravitational global anomaly index, which could be replaced by 4d or 5d topological quantum field theory, or 4d interacting conformal field theory. These theories provide possible new neutrino mass mechanisms [arXiv:2012.15860]. Second, deconfined quantum criticality between Grand Unified Theories: dictated by a Z_2 class global anomaly, a gapless quantum critical region can happen between Georgi-Glashow and Pati-Salam models as deformation of the Standard Model, where Beyond the Standard Model physics and Dark Gauge sector occur as neighbor phases [arXiv:2106.16248, arXiv:2112.14765, arXiv:2204.08393]. Third, the Strong CP problem can be solved by a new solution involving Symmetric Mass Generation [arXiv:2204.14271].

Speaker: Juven Wang (Harvard U.)

JW.pdf

6-GW Tutorial

24 Pulsar Timing Arrays: The Next Window onto the Low-frequency Gravitational-wave Universe

The nanohertz-frequency band of gravitational waves should be awash with signals from supermassive black-hole binaries, as well as cosmological signatures of phase transitions, cosmic strings, and other relics of the early Universe. Pulsar-timing arrays (PTAs) like the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational waves (NANOGrav) and the International Pulsar Timing Array are poised to chart this new frontier of gravitational wave discovery within the next several years. I will present exciting new results from recent cutting-edge searches, discuss some milestones on the road to the next decade of PTA discovery, and take workshop attendees through a guided tutorial of how the broader community can use our production-level analysis pipeline to extract new science with ease.

Speaker: Stephen R. Taylor (Vanderbilt U.)

Friday, 5 August

Theory Developments

25 Charge-Monopole Pairwise Phases from Dressed Quantum States

Speaker: Ofri Telem (Cornell U.)

Pairwise States = Dressed States, CMSA (1).pdf

26 Coupling a Cosmic String to a TQFT

In the last few years, the notion of symmetry has been enlarged to “generalized symmetry” or “higher-form symmetry” and these more generalized symmetries have played a critical role in deepening our understanding of QFT, notably IR phases of QFT. In this talk, I will discuss a various ways of coupling the axion-Maxwell theory to a topological field theory (TQFT). Contrary to a common wisdom, I will show that such topological modifications can lead to direct changes in the local physics with possible observable consequences. This surprise can be realized by a dimensional reduction, namely, a coupling to a TQFT in 4d leads to a non-trivial and local impact on the 2d string world-sheet QFT. There also exists a topological modification of the theory, i.e. gauging a discrete subgroup of 0-form shift symmetry, and this time it results in a alteration of spectrum of cosmic strings. If time permits, I will also discuss generalized symmetries and associated higher-groups of these theories.

Speaker: Sungwoo Hong (Chicago U.)

Coupling Cosmic String to a TQFT_SH_Cambridge_HE_Workshop_v3.pdf

27 Non-perturbative methods for false vacuum decay

Gravitational waves from phase transitions in the early universe are one of our most promising signal channels of BSM physics; however, existing methods for predicting these signals are limited to weakly-coupled theories. In this talk, I present the quasi-stationary effective action, a new non-perturbative formalism for false vacuum decay that integrates over local fluctuations in field space using the functional renormalization group. This method opens the door to reliable calculation of gravitational wave signals and false vacuum decay rates for strongly-interacting theories. I will also discuss recent developments and ongoing extensions of the QSEA.

Speaker: Eleanor Hall (Berkeley U.)

BSM

28 Electroweak Symmetric Balls

Electroweak symmetric balls are macroscopic objects with electroweak symmetry restored inside. Such an object can arise in models where dark sectors contain monopole or non-topological soliton with a Higgs portal interaction to the Standard Model. It could be produced in the early universe via phase transition or parametric resonance, accounting for all dark matter. In a scenario where the balls are allowed to evaporate, the observed baryon asymmetry in our universe could be explained by a mechanism of “catalyzed baryogenesis.” In this mechanism, the motion of a ball-like catalyst provides the necessary out-of-equilibrium condition, its outer wall has CP-violating interactions with the Standard Model particles, and its interior has baryon number violating interactions via electroweak Sphaleron. Because of electroweak symmetric cores, such objects have a large geometric cross-section off a nucleus, generating a multi-hit signature in large volume detectors. These objects could radiatively capture a nucleus and release GeV-scale energy for each interaction. The IceCube detector can probe dark matter balls with masses up to a gram.

Speaker: Mrunal Korwar (Wisconsin U., Madison)

Mrunal_korwar.pdf

29 Discrete Gauged Baryon Minus Lepton Number and the Cosmological Lithium Problem

We study the baryon minus lepton number gauge theory broken by a scalar with charge six. The infrared discrete vestige of the gauge symmetry demands the existence of cosmic string solutions, and their production as dynamical objects in the early universe is guaranteed by causality. These topological defects can support interactions which convert three protons into three positrons, and we argue an electric’-magnetic’ interplay can lead to an amplified, strong-scale cross-section in an analogue of the Callan-Rubakov effect.
The cosmological lithium problem—that theory predicts a primordial abundance thrice as high as that observed—has resisted decades of attempts by cosmologists, nuclear physicists, and astronomers alike to root out systematics. We suggest cosmic strings have disintegrated O(1) of the primordial lithium nuclei and estimate the rate in a benchmark scenario. To our knowledge this is the first new physics mechanism with microphysical justification for the abundance of lithium uniquely to be modified after Big Bang Nucleosynthesis.

Speaker: Seth Koren (Chicago U.)

LithiumProbCHEW.pdf

30 Supercool Composite Dark Matter beyond 100 TeV

Speaker: Yann Gouttenoire (Chicago U.)

Gouttenoire_Harvard.pdf