High Energy Theory Seminar: Javier Subils

Title: Microscopic Description of Critical Bubbles

Abstract: First-order phase transitions in the early Universe or in neutron stars can leave observable gravitational wave imprints. But predicting these signals requires precise understanding of bubble dynamics and, in particular, the nucleation of critical bubbles of the stable phase within a metastable plasma. Using holography, I present a fully microscopic description of these bubbles in a strongly coupled four-dimensional gauge theory at finite temperature. In the gravitational dual, the bubbles appear as static, inhomogeneous, and unstable black-brane solutions featuring localized horizon deformations. I will outline the construction of these solutions and show how they allow the nucleation rate to be extracted across the entire metastable branch. Time permitting, I will also compare this rate—and other microscopic properties—with those obtained from an effective field-theory description.