Particle Physics on the Plains​ 2026

Session

Early Universe

14 Nov 2026, 16:00

2048 Malott Hall (University of Kansas)

39. TBD

Carlos E.M. Wagner

14/11/2026, 16:00

TBD

6. Cosmological Implications of Evaporating Primordial Black Holes

Dr TaeHun Kim (KIAS)

14/11/2026, 16:25

Primordial black holes (PBHs) provide a unique connection between early-Universe cosmology, gravity, and particle physics. Light PBHs evaporate through Hawking radiation, and those lighter than about a kiloton disappear before Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Nevertheless, their cosmological effects need not disappear with them. In this talk, I will discuss three examples of such persistent imprints,...

8. Constraints on Supermassive Primordial Black Holes from Early Reionization

Badal Bhalla (University of Utah)

14/11/2026, 16:43

Supermassive black holes (SMBHs), if formed in the early Universe, can significantly influence structure formation even when they account for only a small fraction of the dark matter. Due to their discrete nature, primordial SMBHs generate an additional contribution to the standard matter power spectrum, enhancing the abundance of dark matter halos and, consequently, the cosmic star formation...

22. Electroweak Supercooling and Gravitational-Wave Enhancement with a Weakly Coupled Light Scalar

Ankur Verma (University of South Dakota)

14/11/2026, 17:01

We study how a weakly mixed light scalar modifies a first-order electroweak phase transition supported by a heavier scalar in an extension of the Standard Model Higgs sector. Using a one-loop finite-temperature potential and multifield tunnelling calculations, we identify a regime in which the light scalar develops a large condensate in the metastable phase. Although this condensate barely...

32. Holographic phase transition in a soft-wall model

Arpon Paul (University of Minnesota)

14/11/2026, 17:19

Strongly coupled gauge theories arise naturally in physics beyond the Standard Model and may undergo a first-order deconfinement-to-confinement phase transition in the early universe. Such a transition can proceed through bubble nucleation and generate a stochastic gravitational wave background. In this talk, I will discuss this process from a holographic perspective using a soft-wall model,...

12. Echoes of global cosmic strings

Dr Antonios Kyriazis (University of Iowa)

14/11/2026, 17:37

Spontaneous symmetry breaking of global symmetries in the early universe may leave behind topological defects known as cosmic strings. These strings continuously emit the symmetry’s pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson, which contributes to the dark matter density after it becomes non-relativistic. In the talk, I will discuss the numerical and analytical methods we developed to evaluate the density...