Friction pressure on relativistic bubble walls

Abstract

During a cosmological first-order phase transition, particles of the plasma crossing the bubble walls can radiate a gauge boson. The resulting pressure cannot be computed perturbatively for large coupling constant and/or large supercooling. We resum the real and virtual emissions at all leading-log orders, both analytically and numerically using a Monte-Carlo simulation. We find that radiated bosons are dominantly soft and that the resulting retarding pressure on relativistic bubble walls is linear both in the Lorentz boost and in the order parameter, up to a log. We further quantitatively discuss IR cut-offs, wall thickness effects, the impact of various approximations entering the calculation, and comment on the fate of radiated bosons that are reflected.