TPPC weekly seminar: Prateek Agrawal - "Avoided Deconfinement in Randall-Sundrum models"

Wednesday 20 Apr 2022, 12:45 → 13:45 Europe/London

Speaker: Prateek Agrawal, Rudolf Peierls Centre, University of Oxford

Title: Avoided Deconfinement in Randall-Sundrum models

Abstract:
Early universe phase transitions in RS models are interesting from a theoretical as well as an observational viewpoint. They are dual to first-order confinement transitions in large-N gauge theories and are a prime target for stochastic gravitational wave signals. The transition rate to the confined phase is suppressed by exp(−N^2) and does not complete for parametrically large N, in significant tension with calculability in RS. I will present a mechanism which stabilizes the IR brane such that the theory avoids deconfinement at high temperature and stays in the confined phase at all times after inflation and reheating.  Early universe phenomena such as WIMP freeze-out, axion abundance, baryogenesis and gravitational wave signatures are qualitatively modified.