Gravitational Wave Phenomena in Cosmic Domain Walls
Summary
Cosmic domain walls are two-dimensional topological defects that arise when a discrete symmetry is broken in the early Universe. As networks of these walls evolve and eventually annihilate, they emit a stochastic background of gravitational waves whose characteristic frequency and amplitude depend on the wall tension, the time of decay and any coupling to particle sectors. This phenomenology links high-energy particle physics and cosmology by offering a probe of symmetry-breaking scales well beyond terrestrial colliders. Signals generated at nano-Hertz frequencies may be accessible to pulsar timing arrays, while transient bursts or higher-frequency backgrounds could be targeted by ground-based and space-borne interferometers. The study of gravitational waves from domain walls thus provides a unique window into the physics of the dark sector, axion models and phase transitions in the early Universe.
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Gravitational Wave Phenomena in Cosmic Domain Walls publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in gravitational wave phenomena in cosmic domain walls across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Domain wall: A two-dimensional surface defect formed when a discrete symmetry is spontaneously broken in the early Universe, separating regions of distinct vacuum states.
Gravitational wave: A propagating disturbance of spacetime curvature produced by accelerated masses or evolving stress-energy distributions, travelling at the speed of light.
Stochastic gravitational wave background: A superposition of many unresolved or random gravitational-wave signals, appearing as a persistent noise floor across a range of frequencies.
Pulsar timing array (PTA): A network of millisecond pulsars monitored for correlated variations in pulse arrival times, used to detect low-frequency gravitational waves.
References
- Gravitational waves from domain walls in Pulsar Timing Array datasets. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (2023).
- Primordial gravitational waves in the nano-Hertz regime and PTA data — towards solving the GW inverse problem. Journal of High Energy Physics (2023).
- Gravitational waves from domain wall collapse, and application to nanohertz signals with QCD-coupled axions. Physics Letters B (2024).
- A Review of Gravitational Waves from Cosmic Domain Walls. Universe (2017).
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