Phase transition and gravitational waves in maximally symmetric composite Higgs model

Abstract

In this paper we study phase transitions in a maximally symmetric composite Higgs model with next-to-minimal coset, where a pseudoscalar singlet emerges alongside the Higgs doublet. The maximal symmetry guarantees the finiteness of the radiatively generated scalar potential. We explore the scenario involving an explicit source of CP violation in the strong sector, which induces a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ asymmetric scalar potential, and consequently leads to nonzero vacuum expectation value for the singlet. Current experimental bounds from the LHC are imposed on the masses of the composite resonances, while the CP violating interactions of the pseudo Nambu-Goldstone bosons are tightly constrained from the measurements of the electric dipole moment of the electron. We compute the finite temperature corrections to the potential, incorporating the momentum-dependent form factors in the loop integrals to capture the effect of the strong dynamics. The impact of the resonances from the strong sector on the finite temperature potential are exponentially suppressed. The presence of explicit CP violation leads to strong first-order phase transition from a false vacuum to the electroweak vacuum where the pseudoscalar singlet has a non-zero vacuum expectation value. We illustrate that, as a result of such phase transitions, the production of potentially observable gravitational waves at future detectors will offer a complementary avenue to probe the composite Higgs models, distinct from collider experiments.