Gravitational Waves from Confinement in $SU(N)$ Yang-Mills Theory

Stephan Huber; Rory Phipps; Manuel Reichert

Paper

Gravitational Waves from Confinement in $SU(N)$ Yang-Mills Theory

Abstract

We provide a detailed analysis of the gravitational wave spectrum of

pure Yang-Mills theory. The confinement phase transition is described with an effective Polyakov loop model, using the latest lattice data as an input. In particular, recent lattice studies clarified the large-

scaling of the surface tension, which we incorporate through a modification of the kinetic term. We demonstrate that the thin-wall approximation agrees with the Polyakov loop model at small

while it breaks down at large

. Furthermore, we include reliable estimates of the bubble wall velocity using a recently developed framework based on a large enthalpy jump at the phase transition. Altogether, this allows us to derive the gravitational wave signals for all

confinement phase transitions and clarifies the behaviour at large

. The strongest signal arises for

, but overall the predicted signals remain rather weak. Our work paves the way for future studies of other gauge groups and systems with fermions.