Conformal versus non-conformal two-Higgs-doublet model: phase transitions and gravitational waves

Abstract

In this work we investigate the CP-conserving two-Higgs-doublet model (2HDM) in two realizations: a classically conformal setup (C2HDM) and a non-conformal setup with explicit tree-level quadratic mass terms (NC2HDM). Imposing current theoretical and experimental constraints, we scan the parameter space and analyse the electroweak first-order phase-transition dynamics from the finite-temperature effective potential, determining the relevant thermodynamic scales and the associated parameters $\alpha$ and $\beta/H_*$. In the resulting $(\alpha, \beta/H_*)$ phase diagrams, the NC2HDM spans a substantially broader region and hosts the strongest transitions, whereas the C2HDM is confined to a nested, weaker-transition subset. This challenges the common expectation that classical conformal symmetry generically implies deep supercooling. By relaxing the Higgs-mass identification and varying the scalon mass, we show that sizable supercooling is obtained only when the radiative (one-loop) breaking of scale invariance is sufficiently mild, i.e. for a light scalon. We then compute the resulting stochastic gravitational-wave spectra and show that only the NC2HDM yields benchmark points potentially observable by future space-based interferometers such as LISA, TianQin and Taiji (and, in favourable cases, by more sensitive missions such as DECIGO/BBO).