Speaker
Dr
Bhupal Dev
(Washington University in St. Louis)
Description
We consider a generic framework for axion-like particles (ALPs) by introducing a complex scalar singlet field. The breaking of the corresponding global U(1) symmetry at some high scale leads to a (pseudo) Goldstone boson that is identified as the ALP. We show that if the complex scalar field is coupled to the Standard Model Higgs boson, there exists a large parameter space for which the U(1) breaking is strongly first order, thereby producing stochastic gravitational waves that are potentially observable in current and future gravitational-wave detectors.
