Work

Electroweak Baryogenesis from Collapsing Domain Walls

Year: 2026

Type: preprint

Abstract: We propose a novel mechanism for electroweak baryogenesis in which collapsing domain walls formed by an axion-like field replace the bubble walls in a strong first-order electroweak phase transition. The axion-like particle coupling to the Higgs mass term allows domain walls to separate regions with distinct electroweak phases, while the electroweak crossover induces a potential-energy bias that triggers their collapse. The directed wall motion, through the axion-like particle coupling to the electroweak topological term, acts as an effective baryon chemical potential and generates an asymmetry via electroweak sphaleron processes. We show that the observed baryon asymmetry can be obtained from either late-time entropy injection or sphaleron suppression in a weakly broken electroweak domain. The wall collapse also produces a stochastic gravitational-wave background with features distinct from standard electroweak-scale first-order-transition spectra.

Source: arXiv (Cornell University)

DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2604.27376

Authors: Bai, Yang, Lyu, Kun-Feng, Zhao, Yue

Institutions: Argonne National Laboratory, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Oklahoma, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Jockey Club, University of Hong Kong

Topic: Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies

Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: U.S. Department of Energy, Argonne National Laboratory

Awards: G102163711, G1313983767, G1664757510, G262962599, G3075337988, G6848031779, HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS RESEARCH: EXPERIMENTAL & THEORETICAL, G969889393

OpenAlex ID: W7159688171

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