posted on 2023-06-07, 07:42authored byChiara Caprini, Mark HindmarshMark Hindmarsh, Stephan HuberStephan Huber, Thomas Konstandin, Jonathan Kozaczuk, Germano Nardini, Jose Miguel No, Antoine Petiteau, Pedro Schwaller, Géraldine Servant, David J Weir
We investigate the potential for the eLISA space-based interferometer to detect the stochastic gravitational wave background produced by strong first-order cosmological phase transitions. We discuss the resulting contributions from bubble collisions, magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, and sound waves to the stochastic background, and estimate the total corresponding signal predicted in gravitational waves. The projected sensitivity of eLISA to cosmological phase transitions is computed in a model-independent way for various detector designs and configurations. By applying these results to several specific models, we demonstrate that eLISA is able to probe many well-motivated scenarios beyond the Standard Model of particle physics predicting strong first-order cosmological phase transitions in the early Universe.